countries around the world. They give each nation a score based on the extent of economic freedom in each

category. Note that while the Heritage Foundation/WSJ index is widely cited by an array of scholars and

publications, it should be regarded as only one viewpoint. Some experts indicate that the index’s category choices

and scores are politically biased. However, the index and others like it provide a useful resource for critical
discussion of economic freedom.

The 2016 Heritage Foundation’s Index of Economic Freedom report ranked 178 countries around the world: Table

1.1 lists some examples of the most free and the least free countries. Although technically not a separate country,

Hong Kong has been granted a degree of autonomy such that, for purposes of measuring economic statistics, it is

often treated as a separate country. Several additional countries were not ranked because of extreme instability that
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