Economic Freedom

The United Arab Emirates and Bahrain are again this year tied as the most economically-free nations in the Arab world, according to the Economic Freedom of the Arab World: 2018 Annual Report, co-published by the Fraser Institute, the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Liberty and the International Research Foundation. This report compares and ranks 22 Arab nations in five areas of economic freedom: size of government, including expenditures, taxes and enterprises; commercial and economic law and security of property rights; access to sound money; freedom to trade internationally; and regulation of credit, labour and business.

Economic Freedom of the World: 2018 Annual Report is the world’s premier measurement of economic freedom, ranking countries based on five areas: size of government, legal structure and security of property rights, access to sound money, freedom to trade internationally, and regulation of credit, labour and business. This year’s report compares 162 countries and territories. In this year’s ranking, which is based on 2016 data, Hong Kong is again number one, and Canada (tied for 10th with Australia) trails the United States, which ranks 6th.

The Human Freedom Index, 2017 finds Canada is no longer one of the 10 freest countries in the world, having dropped from fourth to 11th, while the United States climbed up seven spots to 17th. The index ranks 159 countries and jurisdictions based on 79 indicators of personal, civil and economic freedoms and is a joint project with the Cato Institute in the U.S. and Germany’s Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom.