The Human Freedom Index 2016

We released The Human Freedom Index 2016 today. It is our second annual report that presents the state of overall freedom in the world based on a broad measure of personal, civil and economic freedom. Co-published by the Cato Institute, the Fraser Institute (Canada) and the Liberales Institut (Germany), my coauthor Tanja Porcnik and I look at 79 distinct indicators in 159 countries on issues ranging from freedom of speech and association to women’s freedoms, the extent of voluntary exchange, safety and security, the rule of law and more.

Given the rise of populism, nationalism and authoritarianism in many countries around the world in recent years, we think that it is becoming increasingly important not only to appreciate the inherent value of freedom, but also to better appreciate its central role in human progress. For that reason, we think it’s worth measuring carefully.

The top 10 freest jurisdictions are below. The United States ranks 23^rd. Compared to 2008—the earliest year for which we have sufficient data for a robust index—the United States has been on a decline; it ranked 16^th that year. In terms of economic freedom, for which we have decades of comparable data, the United States has been on a long-term decline since the year 2000. Surely, the war on drugs, the war on terror, the expansion of the regulatory state, the rise of crony capitalism and the erosion of property rights due to the abuse of eminent domain have contributed to the U.S. fall in the rule of law and overall human freedom. The United States can unfortunately no longer claim to be the world’s bastion of liberty.

Other country rankings of interest include Chile (29), the freest country in Latin America, while Venezuela (154) is the least free in the region (we don’t measure Cuba because of a lack of reliable data). India ranks 87^th, Russia 115^th and China 141^st. Turkey ranks 73^rd, South Africa 74^th, Brazil 82^nd and Egypt 144^th.

The level of freedom matters for prosperity and overall well-being. For example, the average income per capita of the top quartile of countries is $37,147, far above that of the least free quartile ($8,700). All dimensions of freedom matter and reinforce each other. As countries become more free and therefore more prosperous, the data suggest that they first have relatively higher levels of economic freedom compared to personal freedoms, and that once they reach a high level of freedom, they have relatively higher levels of personal freedom compared to economic freedom, but all indicators of freedom are high. Put another way, if you want to live in a country with a high level of personal freedom, you better have a relatively high level of economic freedom (see graph below).