Not sure if you skimmed the linked article and missed this or not: statistics from the Czech Republic, Sweden and the UK meet the Benford distribution particul

Not sure if you skimmed the linked article and missed this or not: statistics from the Czech Republic, Sweden and the UK meet the Benford distribution particularly close and hence appear unsuspicious. All those countries have no interest in joining the Euro and therefore do not have to meet the convergence criteria. On the other hand, statistics from Latvia, Belgium and Romania (the latter notorious for its corruption) appear very suspicious, as well. And from Tim Harford's article in the FT: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/171aaa36-d8f1-11e0-aff1-00144feabdc0.html http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/171aaa36-d8f1-11e0-aff1-00144feabd... Romania, Latvia and Belgium also have abnormally distributed data, while Portugal, Italy and Spain have a clean bill of health.