Poland is seen as less corrupt than it was a year ago, according to a report by Transparency International (TI), a Germany-based non-governmental organization.

Poland ranked 41st out of 178 nations included in TI’s annual “Corruption Perception Index” (CPI) report, up from 49th place last year.

Transparency International's “Corruption Perception Index 2010”

The index uses a scale ranging from 10 (“highly clean”) to 0 (“highly corrupt”). Poland finished with a corruption perception score of 5.3 – an improvement on the 5.0 it achieved last year.

For the majority of other countries, however, the results appear rather more bleak.

“The 2010 Corruption Perceptions Index shows that nearly three quarters of the 178 countries in the index score below five,” TI wrote in the report. “These results indicate a serious corruption problem.”

TI noted that of those countries whose CPI scores declined y/y, some of the more prominent were those “most affected by a financial crisis precipitated by transparency and integrity deficits.”

Although not mentioned explicitly, financially stricken Greece is likely considered to be one of these countries, having fallen from 71st place last year to 78th (CPI 3.5) in 2010, the lowest position of any EU member state.

Denmark, Singapore and New Zealand shared first place, each scoring 9.3. Somalia came in last place, with a squalid 1.1.