Corruption continues to be one of humanity’s biggest threat to security, prosperity and justice. Itremains one of the most common social evils yet the most difficult to stop. Many scholars fromdifferent fields have sought to investigate the economic impact of corruption, the moral andethical violations, legal consequences that corrupt people should face and the perception oncorruption. Further studies have sought to rank countries from the most corrupt to the leastcorrupt countries in the world. Such comparative studies have given valuable information on thepatterns of corruption but rarely provide explanation for the causes. This paper therefore seeksto examine whether there is a trend between corruption and social, political, cultural andreligious spheres of selected countries from the developed and developing worlds. By relying onliterature from government and non-governmental organisations, academic publications, mediaarticles and publications from investigative agencies, this article finds that there is no consistentrelationship between the socio -political, cultural and religious environment and corruptionthough strong political institutions are key agents in addressing corruption problem.