Hong Kong: Singapore and Hong Kong have been voted as the world's freest economies in 2007, with Hong Kong in first place and Singapore in second position. Australia stood in the third spot in the latest Index of Economic Freedom survey for 2007, conducted by the Wall Street Journal and The Heritage Foundation.

Hong Kong has topped the rankings for the 13th consecutive year with an 89.3 score out of 100, while Singapore came second with a score of 85.7. Australia jumped from ninth to third place in a new ranking methodology which included factors such as labor freedom for the first time.

Europe had four countries in the top 10 including the UK, Ireland, Luxembourg and Switzerland, while the United States came fourth. The worst ranked country was North Korea with three points.

Asia's economic giant China ranked a lowly 119, behind countries like Lesotho and Cameroon, given its lack of property rights and financial and investment freedom.

The ranking based on economic freedom was as follows: