Index of Economic Freedom 2025
The Heritage Foundation · Published September 2025
Latest edition: September 2025 · Next expected: September 2027
This ranking is misleading. Its definition of economic freedom does much of the work, and its donors are undisclosed.
What the report claims
The Index of Economic Freedom scores countries on 12 factors across rule of law, government size, regulatory efficiency, and open markets, combining official data from the IMF, the World Bank, and the WTO with Heritage’s own assessments. India ranks 128th of 184, with a score of 53.0, rated Mostly Unfree, a seven-year low. The drags are government integrity, labour freedom, and fiscal health. The formulas for the quantitative factors are fully disclosed, and all 12 factor scores are published. The index equates smaller government expenditure directly with freedom.
The Credibility Score, dimension by dimension
- Methodology transparency / replicability
- 8 / 20
- Source verifiability + measurement integrity
- 8 / 25
- Internal consistency of India’s place
- 13 / 20
- Construct validity / India coverage
- 3 / 10
- Independence and funding
- 4 / 20
- Accountability (corrections, versioning)
- 1 / 5
Funding and independence: The Heritage Foundation is a United States nonprofit with a stated mission to promote conservative public policy, including free enterprise and limited government, and its own staff produce the Index. Funding comes from private donations by individuals, foundations, and corporations, and the report does not name every donor or the amount given. A board of trustees governs the organization, but no independent statistical agency or external peer-review panel sets or audits the country scores, and annual editions record method changes without a public corrections log.
Sources: The Heritage Foundation, Index of Economic Freedom 2025
Updated 9 November 2026