According to the Corruption Perception Index released by Transparency International, those countries fail "to protect citizens from corruption, be it abuse of public resources, bribery or secretive decision-making."
Two-thirds of the over 180 countries on the list scored less than a five on their index, from a possible score of zero to 10 with zero being "highly corrupt."
The United States was ranked the 24th cleanest country when it came to corruption, scoring 7.1.
Mexico scored a three on the list, while Canada scored 8.7. In the Western Hemisphere, Haiti was ranked as most-corrupt with a score of 1.8, followed by Venezuela with a score of 1.9.
According to the report, New Zealand, Denmark and Finland were at the top of the list for least-corrupt countries in the world.
