UK ranks 12th out of 165 countries in economic freedom

Wednesday 15th September 2021 06:27 EDT
 

The UK has emerged at the 12th position in the Economic Freedom of the World: 2021 Annual Report released by the Institute of Economic Affairs in conjunction with Canada’s Fraser Institute. The report identifies 165 countries, with Hong Kong and Singapore again topping the index as 1st and 2nd respectively. The top 10 included New Zealand, Switzerland, Georgia, the United States, Ireland, Lithuania, Australia and Denmark.

Based on 2019 data, the report warns that recent events in Hong Kong will likely cause its score to fall as data becomes available for 2020 and 2021. The 10 lowest-rated countries included the Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Syria, Republic of Congo, Iran, Zimbabwe, Algeria, Libya, Sudan, and Venezuela. Other notable rankings included Japan at the 18th spot, Germany at 22nd, Italy at 47th, France at 53rd, Russia at 100th, India at 108th, and China 116th.

According to the research, people living in countries with high levels of economic freedom enjoy greater prosperity, more political and civil liberties, and longer lives. Academic and Research Director at the Institute of Economic Affairs, James Forder said, “The Economic Freedom of the World Report demonstrates to us, once again, that economies with less government intervention are richer, grow faster, and have healthier citizens.”

He added, “While it’s great news that the UK now ranks 12th in the index – up one position from last year – we are still a long way away from the impressive 4th position we held in 2000. Indeed, in some areas, specifically within the ‘size of government’ component, the UK ranks among one of the worst in the world. As this report looks at data from 2019, the growth of government and its continued interference in our lives over the last two years should be a cause of great concern to anyone who cares about keeping the size of government under control.”

Countries in the top quartile of economic freedom had an average per-capita GDP of US$50,619 in 2019, compared to US$5,911 for bottom quartile countries.


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