Countries With the Lowest Economic Freedom (Fraser)

Every country with a figure for economic freedom (Fraser), ranked from lowest to highest. The top three are Venezuela, RB (2.95), Zimbabwe (3.63) and Sudan (4.17). The middle country of the 165 has 6.68.

What this measures

Economic freedom, summary rating (Fraser Institute), in rating (0-10). Source: Fraser Institute. For this measure, no agreed better direction.

How far a country's laws and policies leave economic choices to people and markets rather than to the government, from 0 to 10, as the Fraser Institute measures it. It is the average of five areas: the size of government, the legal system and property rights, sound money (stable prices), freedom to trade with other countries, and regulation. It comes from a think tank that favours free markets, and a smaller government scores as freer, so no "better" direction is set: how big a government should be is a political question. This series is Fraser's panel version, built to compare years: every five years from 1970, then every year from 2000.

The full ranking

Each country’s latest figure, from 2024–2024. The year beside each value says when it was measured.

More on economic freedom (Fraser)

• Countries With the Highest Economic Freedom (Fraser)
• Economic freedom (Fraser) by country: trend over time and what it goes with

Related rankings

• Countries With the Lowest Small Government (Fraser)
• Countries With the Lowest Sound Money (Fraser)
• Countries With the Lowest Freedom to Trade (Fraser)
• Countries With the Lowest Light Regulation (Fraser)
• Countries With the Lowest Public Social Spending
• Countries With the Lowest Family Benefits Spending
• Countries With the Lowest Old-age Spending
• Countries With the Lowest Aid Given

A ranking describes countries, not the people in them, and a high or low place does not by itself say why. All country rankings.