32 nations are distributed according to their CPI and Gini indexes, and the medians computed. 13 nations are in the high corruption / low egalitarian quadrant, the worst in class being Paraguay, Honduras and Bolivia. Another group of 13 nations are in the low corruption / high egalitarian quadrant , the best in class being Finland, Denmark and Sweden.

Corruption and inequality of income distribution seem strongly correlated. Corruption is measured by CPI (from 0.0 for highest, to 1.0 for lowest corruption), and inequality of income distribution by the Gini Index (from 0 for perfectly equalitarian, to 100 for totally inequalitarian). The orange vertical line indicates the median CPI, i.e. 0.54, and the orange horizontal line indicates the median Gini, i.e. 42.3.
[Values for Austria and Luxembourg being the same and overlapping, only one data point, Luxembourg, appears in the chart].

 

Relationship Between Corruption & Unequal Income Distribution ¹

Country

Gini Index

Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI)
Argentina 51 0.25
Australia 29 0.88
Austria 26 0.84
Bahamas 43 0.58
Belgium 26 0.75
Bolivia 50 0.22
Brazil 57 0.39
Colombia 56 0.38
Costa Rica 48 0.49
Denmark 24 0.95
Dominican Republic 51 0.29
El Salvador 48 0.42
Finland 25 0.97
France 28 0.71
Germany 31 0.82
Greece 33 0.43
Guatemala 49 0.22
Honduras 54 0.23
Iraq 42 0.21
Ireland 32 0.75
Italy 33 0.48
Luxembourg 26 0.84
Mexico 50 0.36
Norway 25 0.89
Panama 55 0.37
Paraguay 55 0.19
Portugal 38 0.63
Spain 31 0.71
Sweden 23 0.92
United States 46 0.75
Uruguay 46 0.62
Venezuela 45 0.23
Average39.880.56
Median42.50.54
Correlaqtion r = -0.85
Regression R² = 0.72
¹ Data for 2004. Countries selected on the basis of data availability.

 

Sources: Transparency International, World Income Inequality Database.

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