Legend: Dark Red - Very corrupt; Lime Green - Least corrupt; Orange - Medium -Wikipedia
Denmark, New Zealand and Singapore are tied for first as having the least corruption in the world while Canada placed third on the list after Sweden and Finland tied for 2nd place.
Our neighbours to the south, the United States ranked 22nd behind Japan and the UK.
The rating is the result of a mathematic formula which assesses the counts of bribery of public officials, embezzlement of public funds and probing the strength and effectiveness of public sector anti-corruption efforts, according to a release accompanying the 2010 CPI.
The countries ranking the worst were, from bottom to top, Somalia, Afghanistan, Myanmar and Iraq. China also ranked low on the list at 78th place out of 178 countries surveyed.
"With governments committing huge sums to tackle the world's most pressing problems, from the instability of financial markets to climate change and poverty, corruption remains an obstacle to achieving much needed progress," says Transparency International.
Meanwhile Russia has fallen in its rankings from 146th place to 154th, tied with several African countries and was the most corrupt among G-20 nations.
Botswana was the least corrupt country in Africa at 33rd place.