Index of Economic Freedom

This article is about the index published by the Wall Street Journal and the Heritage Foundation. For other indices, see Indices of economic freedom.

An overall heatmap from the 2023 Index of Economic Freedom, published by The Heritage Foundation and The Wall Street Journal.
  Free (100–80)
  Mostly free (79.9–70)
  Moderately free (69.9–60)
  Mostly unfree (59.9–50)
  Repressed (49.9–0.00)

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 assert that they take an approach inspired by Adam Smith's 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".[1][2][page needed]

  1. ^ "Executive Summary" (PDF). Index of Economic Freedom. January 15, 2008. Archived from the original (PDF) on February 27, 2008. Retrieved February 4, 2008.
  2. ^ William Beach, Time Kane (January 15, 2008). "Methodology; Measuring the 10 Economic Freedoms" (PDF). Index of Economic Freedom. Archived from the original (PDF) on February 27, 2008. Retrieved February 4, 2008.