Countries With Economic Freedom Are Far Better Off
The ability to choose your job, start a business, own property, or decide how to spend your paycheck may seem natural to most Americans. Yet for billions around the world, the most basic economic freedoms remain out of reach. The latest Economic Freedom of the World index, just released by the Fraser Institute, reminds us why freedom matters for everyone, whether you’re a factory worker in Michigan, a tech entrepreneur in Austin, or a farmer in Niger.
Economic freedom isn’t just some wonky concept debated in academic halls. It’s about whether a government protects property rights or seizes assets at will; whether regulations are sensible or suffocating; whether you can trade freely or face a maze of obstructions; whether your money holds its value or your purchasing power gets eroded by government mismanagement; and whether you can count on courts to enforce contracts fairly.
The 2024 index, using the latest available data from 2022, measures precisely these factors across 165 countries, as it has done since 1996. The results are striking.
The freest economies enjoy an average gross domestic product (GDP) per capita about 7.6 times greater than that of the 25 percent least economically free places. They have cleaner environments, better health care outcomes, and longer life expectancies—by a lot. Even the poorest citizens of free countries fare better than the middle classes in economically repressive nations.
Who are these lucky countries? “Hong Kong (1st), Singapore (2nd), Switzerland (3rd), New Zealand (4th), the United States (5th), Denmark and Ireland (tied for 6th), Canada (8th), and Australia and Luxembourg (tied for 9th).” It shouldn’t be lost on my readers that Denmark, which Sen. Bernie Sanders (D–Vt.) often uses as an example of a socialist democratic regime, has far more in common with the United States than with a truly socialist country.
Speaking of socialist-like countries, the 10 least free are Yemen, Libya, Iran, Argentina, Myanmar, Algeria, Syrian Arab Republic, Sudan
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