“Among developed economies, Sweden’s climbed the ranks fastest since 1996,” said the think tank’s political analyst Anthony Kim to newspaper Svenska Dagbladet (SvD).

Kim’s comments come in response to a study carried out by Heritage at the behest of SvD.

The newspaper wanted to know more about how the pace of liberalisation in Sweden compared with how the process had been carried out in other countries.

Liberalisation policies have been backed by previous social democratic governments as well as the current centre-right government.

Certain areas make Sweden stand out in the crowd, in particular labour migration, the country’s publicly funded, privately managed free schools, and the deregulated railroad.

Sweden’s regulations on labour migration, where being offered employment is enough to make the system one of the most open in the western world, according to OECD.

The Swedish school system is also one of the world’s most liberal. Only Chile’s school system is at a similar level. What’s completely unique is that the Swedish government doesn’t care who owns the school.

“In twenty years, we went from one of the world’s most regulated school systems to the world’s most liberal,” said national economist Jonas Vlachos to Svenska Dagbladet.