Costa Rica and Corruption

The Transparency International Corruptions Perceptions Index uses up to 16 surveys to determine the overall corruption index. All sources measure the extent of corruption including; frequency and or size of bribes in the public and political sectors. Evaluation is performed by country experts, non resident and residents, non-residents business leaders from developing countries, and resident business leaders evaluating their own country. This study was performed by the Passau University in Germany.

Year / Ranking / Score (0-10, where 10 is high)
2005 ; 51 ; 4.2
2004 ; 41 ; 4.9
2003 ; 50 ; 4.3
2002 ; 40 ; 4.5

The only Latin American Country to do better consistently than Costa Rica is Chile, which consistently ranked one below the United States. Uruguay also appeared at times higher than Costa Rica, and El Salvador shows some improvements as well.

I believe what this shows is that while Costa Rica has a lot of room for improvements, it's higher ranking as a developing country indicates that CR is one of the better managed Latin American countries.

For more information Transparency International
Corruption Perceptions Index 2005