Australia and New Zealand grabbed third and fourth spot respectively. The report is compiled by The Heritage Foundation, a conservative Washington-based think tank, and The Wall Street Journal. Ireland, Switzerland, Canada, the United States, Denmark and Chile rounded out the top ten list, which is based on criteria including economic openness, trade, the efficiency of domestic regulators, and the rule of law.
But Canada pushed the US from the top seven economies deemed to have an entirely free economy due to "notable decreases in financial freedom, monetary freedom, and property rights," the report said. Mainland China was ranked 140 in the list of 183 countries with Cuba, Zimbabwe and North Korea rounding out the bottom of the list.