United States Ranks Twelfth for Economic Freedom

NCPA January 28, 2015

The Heritage Foundation and the Wall Street Journal have released their 2015 Index of Economic Freedom, and the United States is in twelfth place, placing it in the "mostly free" tier of countries. The top five nations for economic freedom were Hong Kong, Singapore, New Zealand, Australia and Switzerland.

The United States has fallen in the economic freedom rankings since 2008 until this year, when it scored 0.7 points higher than last year. The report offers some details about the U.S. ranking:

• The index cited "uneven" protections of property rights based on regulatory overreach from the executive branch.
• More than 150 new major regulations have been implemented in the United States since 2009, costing more than $70 billion annually.
• The United States has one of the world's highest top corporate tax rates, and America's public debt "exceeds the value of the economy's annual production."

Ahead of the United States in the "mostly free" category is Canada in sixth place, followed by Chile, Estonia, Ireland, Mauritius and Denmark.

Source: "2015 Index of Economic Freedom," Heritage Foundation/Wall Street Journal, January 2015.