World’s Top 10 Countries per 2011 Index of Economic Freedom

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Every year for over a decade, The Wall Street Journal and The Heritage Foundation, have been publishing their Index of Economic Freedom. As they themselves put it:

Since 1995, the Index has brought Smith’s theories about liberty, prosperity and economic freedom to life by creating 10 benchmarks that gauge the economic success of 183 countries around the world.

Should you wonder what countries made the top 10 list for 2011, here they are:

1. Hong Kong
2. Singapore
3. Australia
4. New Zealand
5. Switzerland
6. Canada
7. Ireland
8. Denmark
9. United States
10. Bahrain

Some surprises there, no doubt. Some of the countries which we expected to be on the list of top five didn’t even make the top ten. For example, the United Kingdom finished only 16th, Japan, Austria, Sweden and Germany landed in places 20, 21, 22, and 23 respectively (being beaten by Estonia (14) and Mauritius (12) too), while Belgium came only 32nd (with Taiwan (25) and Georgia (29) ranking higher).

Here is the full Top 10 list:

The full ranking of all 183 countries may be found here.

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