Korea was rated as 40th least corrupt in a list of around 200 countries according to Transparency International for 2005, and was among 21 others that had improved their rating since 2004.

List of major English-speaking countries and near neighbours to Korea according to ranking and transparency index:

• New Zealand (2) - 9.6
• Australia (9) - 8.8
• United Kingdom (11) - 8.6
• Canada (14) - 8.4
• USA (17) - 7.6
• Ireland (19) - 7.4
• Japan (21) - 7.3
• Korea (40) - 5.0
• South Africa (46) - 4.5
• China (78) - 3.2

Source: [1]