Maybe we're just used to being No. 1 in everything, but I find it troubling that the United States finished no better than 6th in the 2009 "Index of Economic Freedom" published by The Wall Street Journal and The Heritage Foundation.

And with the Barack Obama administration taking over and Democratic control of Congress, look for the U.S. to slip even further in coming years.

The 10 freedoms measured by the Index are: business freedom, trade freedom, fiscal freedom, government size, monetary freedom, investment freedom, financial freedom, property rights, freedom from corruption and labor freedom. Ratings in each category were averaged to produce the overall Index score.

Here are the Top 10 countries:

1 Hong Kong
2 Singapore
3 Australia
4 Ireland
5 New Zealand
6 United States
7 Canada
8 Denmark
9 Switzerland
10 United Kingdom

To view the full ranking of 183 nations in each of the 10 categories, visit www.heritage.org/index

North America Leads World in Economic Freedom, 2009 Index Finds