In a recent meeting, I listened to a Director of a company from Finland* describe challenges of working globally, describing requests for special payments to facilitate the movement of goods.   His story reminded me that there is an annual report titled  the Corruption Perception Index (CPI).  Created by Transparency International it offers an assessment of the perceived level of corruption in countries across the globe.   (https://www.transparency.org/en).

The 2020 edition of the CPI ranks 180 countries and territories by their perceived levels of public sector corruption, drawing on expert assessments and surveys of business executives. It uses a scale of zero (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean).

Denmark and New Zealand top the index as the least corrupt tied with 88 points.  Following them are Finland*, Switzerland, Sweden and Singapore all at 88.   At the bottom:  Syria, Somalia and South Sudan  with 14, 12 and 12 points, respectively.  Wondering about the United States?   The US appears at #25 with 67 points (down from 73 in 2012).     Thinking about entering a new market?  Don’t forget to check the CPI. 

To see the full report:  https://www.transparency.org/en/cpi/2020/index/nzl

Yes, there is still Happiness in the World

 

 It’s hard to think in terms of happiness when we look back at 2020.  However --- it can be found.   Thanks to the Sustainable Development Solutions Network we know that there is Happiest Country in the World.    They recently issued their annual report,  announcing that Finland was the Happiest Country in the World.  (https://worldhappiness.report/ed/2021)

 

They stated that:  “This year’s report focuses on the effects of COVID-19 on happiness and how countries have differed in their success in reducing the deaths and maintaining connected and healthy societies.”   Although the same five countries  rank as the happiest five whether looking at results covering 2018 – 2020 or only  2020, the rankings change slightly.  Either way Finland continues to rank #1 – Happiest country.

 

 2018-2020                   (2020 only)

 

1.     Finland                         (1)

2.     Denmark                      (3)

3.     Switzerland                  (4)

4.     Iceland                          (2)

5.     Netherlands                 (5)

 

 

You’ll find the details  of the 2021 report and those dating to 2013 by following this link:  https://worldhappiness.report/archive.

 

(By the way, of the 149 countries in included in the report for 2018-2020 – in the top 20 are  Austria at 10, Ireland 15, the US 19 and Belgium 20.  At  149 is Afghanistan.)