With the conservative Heritage Foundation’s 2010 ranking of Canada as more economically free than the United States, the CIA’s overstatement of Canada’s government intervention in the economy is particularly striking.

From Canada’s Economy section of the CIA’s World Factbook, we see:

GDP (official exchange rate):

$1.335 trillion (2009 est.)

Budget:

revenues: $514.5 billion

expenditures: $547.2 billion (2009 est.)

Government spending is reported to be 41% of Canada’s GDP in 2009.

From the United States‘ Economy page, we see:

GDP (official exchange rate):

$14.43 trillion (2009 est.)

Budget:

revenues: $1.914 trillion

expenditures: $3.615 trillion (2009 est.)

Government spending is reported to be 25% of the United States’ GDP in 2009.

From the official U.S. federal budget numbers for 2009, total spending was $3.518 trillion. The CIA’s estimate was off by less than 3%.

From Canada’s federal budget numbers for 2009, total spending was $237.8 billion or only 17.8% of Canada’s GDP, seven percentage points lower than that of the U.S., with the CIA’s estimate off by more than 200%.

Since both countries have federal governments, and the CIA is reporting the federal budget numbers for the U.S., the same should be true for Canada.

As further evidence the CIA’s data for Canada’s government spending is incorrect, the conservative Heritage Foundation ranked Canada as more economically free than the United States in 2010. If Canada truly had 41% of its GDP tied up in government spending versus 25% for the U.S, how could and why would the Heritage Foundation rank Canada as more economically free?