Denmark shared first place with New Zealand in this year’s Corruption Perception Index (CPI), released by anti-corruption campaign group Transparency International on Wednesday.
Denmark and New Zealand were both given a score of 90 on the 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean) scale, followed closely by Finland and Sweden, which scored 89 and 88 respectively.
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While still good enough for first place, Denmark’s score fell slightly from 91 in 2015 and 92 in 2014.
Knut Gotfredsen, the head of Transparency International Danmark, said that Danes should not be satisfied with merely topping the list.
“We have won the contest but we haven’t set any world records. Danes have a legitimate demand that the political system works to limit corruption. A score of 90 is not good enough,” he said in a press release.
As a whole, Transparency International said that no nation in the world – Denmark included – is doing enough to fight corruption.
“There are no drastic changes in Europe and Central Asia in the Corruption Perceptions Index 2016, with only a few exceptions. However, this does not mean that the region is immune from corruption. The stagnation does not indicate that the fight against corruption has improved, but quite the opposite,” Transparency International wrote.
“Last year in Denmark, the top country on the index, 20 members of the Danish Parliament (11 percent of 179 members) did not declare their outside activities or financial interests in their asset declarations,” the group continued, adding that it is “highly alarming” that even the best-performing countries in the EU aren’t immune to corruption scandals.
Despite the small score setback, Development Minister Ulla Tørnæs said that Danes should be proud of living in a country that once again has been declared the least corrupt in the world.
“It is a major strength of the Danish society, which we can also use internationally in connection with our development collaborations, where we have a zero-tolerance policy toward corruption,” she said.
Denmark is scheduled to host the world’s largest anti-corruption conference next year.
For the tenth year in a row, Somalia was at the very bottom of the 176 CPI, with a score of 10. The full ranking can be seen here:
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