Index of Economic Freedom (Historical Rankings)

The Index of Economic Freedom is a measure of economic freedom designed by the Heritage Foundation and the Wall Street Journal. [cite web
url=http://www.heritage.org/research/features/index/countries.cfm
title=Index of Economic Freedom
publisher=The Heritage Foundation
accessdate=2008-09-12] It has been published annually since 1995.

This table presents the current (as of 2008) top 40 countries according to this metric together with their rankings in previous years of the study (or "NR" where a country was unranked in the relevant year).

Country Rank 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 2000 1999 1998 1997 1996 1995 Hong Kong 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 Singapore 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 Ireland 3 3 3 4 4 4 4 3 10 11 11 13 27 20 Australia 4 4 7 9 8 10 11 8 5 5 7 9 10 8 United States 5 6 5 5 7 7 8 6 8 7 8 8 5 4 New Zealand 6 5 4 3 3 3 3 4 3 3 3 3 3 NR Canada 7 10 10 12 12 13 14 21 20 25 27 26 20 18 Chile 8 8 8 8 11 12 9 12 12 12 9 7 13 14 Switzerland 9 9 9 6 5 6 6 10 6 4 4 4 4 NR United Kingdom 10 7 6 7 9 9 7 7 4 6 5 5 7 3 Denmark 11 12 13 13 17 20 23 33 33 32 34 30 31 NR Estonia 12 11 15 14 10 8 10 9 24 13 15 24 38 26 The Netherlands 13 15 16 18 14 14 14 16 21 57 24 20 23 NR Iceland 14 13 11 10 19 16 19 15 15 19 18 19 NR NR Luxembourg 15 14 12 11 6 5 5 5 7 15 13 12 15 NR Finland 16 16 17 21 16 15 16 27 50 54 55 39 47 NR Japan 17 18 18 36 50 34 39 23 19 27 21 21 14 6 Mauritius 18 32 35 35 51 52 33 45 36 20 NR NR NR NR Bahrain 19 24 23 22 13 11 12 11 11 8 6 6 6 5 Belgium 20 17 24 30 30 33 34 57 55 60 48 44 36 NR Barbados 21 27 20 24 28 23 17 20 27 37 33 46 53 NR Cyprus 22 20 21 20 15 19 20 22 35 33 29 27 30 NR Germany 23 22 25 28 27 26 25 29 43 40 52 29 25 17 The Bahamas 24 19 19 15 20 17 15 14 16 10 10 10 11 11 Republic of China (Taiwan) 25 25 29 19 26 21 22 18 17 18 20 22 9 7 Lithuania 26 21 22 23 18 27 43 53 67 67 74 78 104 NR Sweden 27 33 27 27 24 24 24 43 47 51 53 53 55 41 Armenia 28 30 14 25 23 37 32 46 62 96 117 123 125 NR Trinidad and Tobago 29 23 26 17 21 29 26 19 13 16 17 16 24 NR Austria 30 26 30 34 32 35 36 37 31 53 43 40 26 16 Spain 31 28 32 31 29 28 29 36 41 45 62 68 65 34 Georgia 32 31 54 93 78 84 104 87 107 114 122 125 123 NR El Salvador 33 29 28 16 22 22 21 17 9 9 22 18 21 19 Norway 34 37 34 45 42 39 37 41 22 29 31 41 39 NR Slovak Republic 35 36 33 42 48 77 76 85 108 105 85 85 75 46 Botswana 36 35 31 26 25 30 42 42 42 59 60 72 56 57 Czech Republic 37 39 40 47 35 36 40 26 30 23 28 54 29 23 Latvia 38 38 37 39 33 44 52 44 57 50 56 57 86 NR Kuwait 39 41 41 48 55 43 46 35 25 24 38 42 35 NR Uruguay 40 34 43 33 37 25 30 24 28 30 26 31 46 37

ee also

*Economic freedom
*Index of Economic Freedom
*Heritage Foundation

References