What do the yellow-ish countries have in common?

What do the yellow-ish countries have in common? | Intellectual Takeout:

Transparency Institute released its international Corruption Perceptions Index.

Transparency International released its 2015 Corruption Perceptions Index, ranking the world’s countries by levels of corruption, in January 2016. Why a “perceptions” index? According to the institute, it’s the best way:

“Corruption generally comprises illegal activities, which are deliberately hidden and only come to light through scandals, investigations or prosecutions. There is no meaningful way to assess absolute levels of corruption in countries or territories on the basis of hard empirical data. Possible attempts to do so, such as by comparing bribes reported, the number of prosecutions brought or studying court cases directly linked to corruption, cannot be taken as definitive indicators of corruption levels. Instead, they show how effective prosecutors, the courts or the media are in investigating and exposing corruption. Capturing perceptions of corruption of those in a position to offer assessments of public sector corruption is the most reliable method of comparing relative corruption levels across countries.”

With that in mind, here’s the map of the perception of corruption globally:

The top ten, least-corrupt countries are the following:

1. Denmark
2. Finland
3. Sweden
4. New Zealand
5. Netherlands
6. Norway
7. Switzerland
8. Singapore
9. Canada
10. Germany, Luxembourg, United Kingdom (3-way tie)

Since you’re probably curious, the United States ranks sixteenth in the world for the lowest perceived levels of corruption.