SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 17 September 2025, Shift 1 · General Awareness · Question 18 of 100

We transcribed this text from the pictures on a candidate's response sheet for this shift; the answer is the key SSC colour-marked on that sheet. Solution last reviewed 13 September 2026.

Where this paper and its answers come from

SSC does not publish CGL question papers or a public answer key. From 2025 the candidate response sheet prints every question and option as a picture, so the text here is transcribed from those pictures for this shift and checked against them independently; where the layout carries meaning, the picture is shown as well. Each answer is the key SSC colour-marked on that sheet. SSC released a tentative key for challenge and later its final one, both only to candidates behind a login, and the sheet does not say which of the two it carries. The solutions are written by UnlockIAS.

A key component evaluated by the 2025 Index of Economic Freedom concerning "Government Size" is:

(a)Public Education Funding
(b)Government Spending Levels
(c)National Defense Expenditures
(d)Foreign Aid Contributions

Answer

Why

Correct — B. The Heritage Foundation's Index of Economic Freedom groups its factors under four pillars. Government Size has three: government spending, tax burden and fiscal health.

Government Spending Levels is the choice that matches a Government Size factor: option (b).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Public Education Funding — A budget head, not a factor. The index scores the overall size of government spending, not what share of it goes to education.
(c)
National Defense Expenditures — Not one of the three factors. Government Size looks at total spending, tax burden and fiscal health, not at defence or any single budget head.
(d)
Foreign Aid Contributions — Aid given abroad is not scored. The pillar measures total government spending, the tax burden and fiscal health, none of which is foreign aid.

Concept

The Index of Economic Freedom was created in 1995 by the Heritage Foundation and The Wall Street Journal. It scores economies from 0 to 100.

Its twelve factors sit under four pillars: Rule of Law, Government Size, Regulatory Efficiency and Open Markets.

Government Size is measured through government spending, tax burden and fiscal health.

Do not confuse it with the Fraser Institute's Economic Freedom of the World, a separate index that also has a size-of-government area.

Key facts

The Index of Economic Freedom was created in 1995 by the Heritage Foundation and The Wall Street Journal.
Its four pillars are Rule of Law, Government Size, Regulatory Efficiency and Open Markets.
Government Size is measured by three factors: government spending, tax burden and fiscal health.
Countries are scored on a scale of 0 to 100.

Study next

The factors under the other pillars, such as property rights, business freedom and trade freedomThe Fraser Institute's Economic Freedom of the World indexGlobal indices and their publishers, such as the IMD World Competitiveness Ranking

Common traps

Choosing a named budget head such as defence or education: the pillar measures how big government is overall, not where the money goes.
Mixing up the Heritage Foundation's Index of Economic Freedom with the Fraser Institute's Economic Freedom of the World.

Index questions also ask the publisher, as at 17 Sep 2025, 16:00, GA Q.17 (keyed: IMD Business School), or the factor a country tops, as at 12 Sep 2025, 16:00, GA Q.21 (keyed: Infrastructure, for Switzerland).

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: History — all 218 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.