Index of Economic Freedom

The Index of Economic Freedom is an annual index and ranking created in 1995 by The Heritage Foundation and The Wall Street Journal to measure the degree of economic freedom in the world's nations. The creators of the index took an approach similar to Adam Smith's in The Wealth of Nations, that 'basic institutions that protect the liberty of individuals to pursue their own economic interests result in greater prosperity for the larger society'. The Index of Economic Freedom is an annual index and ranking created in 1995 by The Heritage Foundation and The Wall Street Journal to measure the degree of economic freedom in the world's nations. The creators of the index took an approach similar to Adam Smith's in The Wealth of Nations, that 'basic institutions that protect the liberty of individuals to pursue their own economic interests result in greater prosperity for the larger society'. Key: ██ Free (80–100)██ Mostly Free (70–79.9)██ Moderately Free (60–69.9)██ Mostly Unfree (50–59.9)██ Repressed (0–49.9) The following table contains more attributes. The whole table is available in XLS format at The Heritage Foundation web site. The 2018 ranking scores aspects of economic freedom between 0 and 100, with 0 meaning 'no economic freedom' and 100 meaning 'total economic freedom'. There are twelve aspects divided into four categories.