Economic Freedom of the World: 2019 Annual Report is the world’s premier measurement of economic freedom, ranking countries based on five areas: size of government, legal structure and security of property rights, access to sound money, freedom to trade internationally, and regulation of credit, labour and business. This year’s report compares 162 countries and territories. In this year’s ranking—Hong Kong is again number one and Canada (8th) trails the United States (5th).