Countries With the Lowest Economy Free of State Ownership

Every country with a figure for economy free of state ownership, ranked from lowest to highest. The top three are Korea, Dem. People's Rep. (-3.28), Eritrea (-2.69) and Afghanistan (-2.32). The middle country of the 176 has 0.728.

What this measures

State ownership of the economy (higher = less owned by the state), in score (higher = less state-owned). Source: V-Dem Institute, University of Gothenburg. For this measure, no agreed better direction.

Does the state own or directly control the important parts of the economy? Experts answer from 0 ("virtually all valuable capital belongs to the state") to 4 ("very little valuable capital belongs to the state"), and V-Dem turns their answers into a score that runs from about -4 to +4. So a low score means a mostly state-run economy, as in North Korea or Eritrea, and a high score a mostly private one. It is about ownership and control, not taxes or welfare: a country can tax and spend a great deal while the state owns almost nothing. Today it lines up only weakly with how rich a country is. Oil states such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait are rich while the state owns much of the economy, and some of the poorest countries, such as Somalia, Haiti and the Central African Republic, have little state ownership. The link with income was stronger in the 1960s and has weakened every decade since. Within Europe and Central Asia, where former communist countries sold off state firms, it is still strong. No "better" direction is set: how much the state should own is a political question.

The full ranking

Each country’s latest figure, from 2025–2025. The year beside each value says when it was measured.

More on economy free of state ownership

• Countries With the Highest Economy Free of State Ownership
• Economy free of state ownership by country: trend over time and what it goes with

Related rankings

• Countries With the Lowest Economic Freedom (Fraser)
• 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

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