Source: Heritage Foundation (2012)
The Heritage Foundation measures ten components of economic freedom, assigning a grade in each using a scale from 0 to 100, where 100 represents the maximum freedom. The 10 economic freedoms are grouped into four broad categories or pillars of economic freedom:
- Rule of Law (property rights, freedom from corruption);
- Limited Government (fiscal freedom, government spending);
- Regulatory Efficiency (business freedom, labor freedom, monetary freedom); and
- Open Markets (trade freedom, investment freedom, financial freedom).
Each of the freedoms within these four broad categories is individually scored on a scale of 0 to 100. A country’s overall economic freedom score is a simple average of its scores on the 10 individual freedoms.
Top 10 Countries
| Country | Rank |
| Hong Kong | 1 |
| Singapore | 2 |
| Australia | 3 |
| New Zealand | 4 |
| Switzerland | 5 |
| Canada | 6 |
| Chile | 7 |
| Mauritius | 8 |
| Ireland | 9 |
| United States | 10 |