An annual list of the world’s top 100 most ethical companies has been published by the Ethisphere Institute, a leading international think-tank dedicated to the creation, advancement and sharing of best practices in business ethics, corporate social responsibility, anti-corruption and sustainability.

As Ethisphere puts it: “The World’s Most Ethical Companies designation recognizes companies that truly go beyond making statements about doing business “ethically” and translate those words into action. This year, there are 100 World’s Most Ethical Companies.” Of these companies, 26 are new to the list in 2010 and 24 companies dropped off from the 2009 list.

Interestingly, out of the top 100 most ethical companies, 79% were USA based. (take that euro-hippy USA-haters!). Also interesting to note, was that all top 100-healthcare companies were USA based (maybe American healthcare ain't that bad?), while there were no USA banks on the list (ha!).

Another hopeful and inspiring insight from this list is that it pays to be good. The below graph compares the “WME Index,” or all publicly traded 2010 World’s Most Ethical Company honorees, against the S&P 500 and FTSE since 2005.

An abridged list of the 2010 winners:

> WME Methodology
> WME Process
> WME Companies 2007
> WME Companies 2008
> WME Companies 2009
> WME Companies 2010
> WME 2011 Nominations