Burj Khalifa view, UAE, Dubai
Source: Good Free Photos

This week, Transparency International (TI) - a global movement with an aim to stop the abuse of power - released its 2018 report detailing corruption in countries across the world.

The Corruption Perceptions Index - which ranks 180 countries and territories around the world - concluded that over two-thirds of countries were more corrupt than clean. The report also raised concern over the fact that the majority of states have failed to make progress in their fight against corruption.

The index - which uses a scale of 0 to 100, where 0 is highly corrupt and 100 is very clean - revealed that some Arab countries have improved in the ranking, while others have worsened.

UAE is the least corrupt in the Arab world

Least corrupt countries
Source: Transparency

The United Arab Emirates retained its spot as the least corrupt country in the Arab world. Ranking 23rd worldwide, the Gulf country received a score of 70/100. It also tied with Uruguay on the ranking.

Over the years, the UAE has seen major improvement as per the index. In 2016, the country received 66/100, but jumped five spots the following year.

The UAE ranked higher (less corrupt) than Spain, South Korea, Italy, Malaysia, India, and China, to name a few.

The least corrupt country in the world is Denmark, which scored 88/100 on the index. 

How did other Arab countries rank?

Source: The Financial Express

Noting that the higher the score, the less corrupt a country, here's where Arab countries stand on the ranking. (Palestine was excluded from the report).

  1. UAE (23rd globally)
    Score: 70/100 
  2. Qatar (33rd globally)
    Score: 62/100
  3. Oman (53rd globally)
    Score: 52/100
  4. Jordan & Saudi Arabia (58th globally)
    Score: 49/100
  5. Morocco & Tunisia (73rd globally)
    Score: 43/100
  6. Kuwait (78th globally)
    Score: 41/100
  7. Bahrain (99th globally)
    Score: 36/100
  8. Algeria & Egypt (105th globally)
    Score: 35/100 
  9. Djibouti (124th globally)
    Score: 31/100 
  10. Lebanon (138th globally)
    Score: 28/100
  11. Comoros & Mauritania (144th globally)
    Score: 27/100 
  12. Iraq (168th globally)
    Score: 18/100 
  13. Libya (170th globally)
    Score: 17/100
  14. Sudan (172nd globally)
    Score: 16/100
  15. Yemen (176th globally)
    Score: 14/100
  16. Syria (178th globally)
    Score: 13/100
  17. Somalia (180th globally)
    Score: 10/100