Corrosive Corruption

Corruption and human development

Transparency International's annual Corruption Perceptions Index measures how citizens from across the globe feel about corruption. The results are given on a scale of 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean). Comparing the corruption index (CPI) with the UN's Human Development Index, a measure combining health, wealth and education, demonstrates an interesting connection. As the corruption index rises beyond 4.0 a strong connection with the human development index can be seen. Notable outliers include small but well-run poorer countries such as Bhutan and Cape Verde, while Greece and Italy stand out among the richer countries.

Original graphic

In the original visualization from the Economist, the graphic starts at .2 on the Human Development Index. I've recreated that here by setting the domain of the y-axis to [.2, 1]. Each country is color coded based on region using the tableau10 color scheme provided by Plot. I've plotted each of the 28 text labels by manually tweaking their position on the chart. My version allows you to hover over any dot on the chart and see the name of the country, the CPI score, and the HDI score.