Libertarians are sometimes described as people who don’t want the government to interfere in either the bedroom or boardroom, which is a shorthand way of saying that there should be both personal freedom and economic freedom.
Based on this preference for liberty and a desire to avoid government coercion, what’s the most libertarian nation in the world? Is it Australia, which I recommended as the best option for escaping Americans if the U.S. becomes a failed welfare state?
Not quite. According to the new Human Freedom Index, Australia gets a very good score, but the most libertarian-oriented place in the world isn’t even a country. It’s Hong Kong, a “special administrative region” of China.
Hong Kong earns its high score thank to it’s number-one status for economic freedom, combined with a top-20 score for personal freedom.
For what it’s worth, European nations dominate the rankings. Other than top-rated Hong Kong, New Zealand (#3), Canada (tied for #6), and Australia (tied for #6), every single nation in the top 20 is from the other side of the Atlantic.
So kudos to our friends from across the ocean. Most of them have big welfare states, but at least they compensate with free market policy in other areas, along with lots of personal freedom.
And what about the United States? We’re ranked #23, which certainly is decent considering that there are 159 countries that are scored, but obviously not worthy of superlatives.
The infographic below contains the specific scores for the United States. As you can see, our economic freedom score (7.75 out of 10) is worse – in absolute terms – than our personal freedom score (8.79 out of 10). But since more nations (especially in Europe) get high scores for personal freedom, our relative ranking for economic freedom (16 our of 159) is better than our relative ranking for personal freedom (28 our of 159).
And if we look at the sub-categories for personal freedom on the left side, you’ll notice that America’s main problem is a very mediocre score for rule of law. Thanks, Obama!
Let’s now look at the nations that have the most personal freedom.
I already mentioned that the United States is in 28th place, so we obviously don’t show up on this top-20 list. But you will find 17 European nations, along with Australia (tied for #12), Canada (#15), and Hong Kong (tied for #19).
By the way, Switzerland is the only nation to be in the top 10 for both personal and economic freedom. So maybe that country’s improbable success isn’t so improbable after all. You do the right thing and you get good results.
And honorable mention to Ireland, Australia, and the United Kingdom for just missing being in the top 10 in both categories.
In case you’re wondering why Hong Kong had the highest overall score even though it was “only” #19 for personal freedom, the answer is that the jurisdiction scores so much higher for economic liberty than the European nations.
P.S. For what it’s worth, I find it surprising that China, which ranks rather low for overall freedom (141 out of 159), is so tolerant of widespread freedom in Hong Kong. I assume (hope?) this is a positive sign that China will evolve in a positive direction.
P.P.S. The very last country on the list is Libya, so perhaps we can conclude that the Hillary Clinton/Barack Obama intervention has not produced good results. Meanwhile, I’m guessing that the thugs in Caracas (154 out of 159) are happy that Venezuela isn’t in last place.
International Liberty 
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Not everyone would agree with unbridled laissez faire. Hong Kong, part of Special Administrative Region of China, in no. 1 place?
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Looks like “size of government” is actually our lowest score. Thanks Republicans!
freedom in Europe is a thing of the past… the information provided here is woefully out of date… just this week the British government revealed plans to appropriate $16.9 million dollars for the protection of Jewish schools… colleges and synagogues… press and internet censorship are common place in most European countries… Sweden has the second highest incidence of rape in the entire world… regulations stifle small business… the french auto industry is dying… the long term economic outlook for Europe is bleak…. the continent’s demographics are a nightmare… social Marxism/political correctness and arrogant stupidity… have doomed the E.U. and it’s people to a miserable fate… one that could hardly be called free………
The Muslim Migrant Invasion and the Collapse of Europe
BY RALPH SIDWAY
This story — literally “ripped from the headlines” — writes itself.
https://www.jihadwatch.org/2016/04/the-muslim-migrant-invasion-and-the-collapse-of-europe
[…] wrote a couple of days ago about a global ranking showing which nations enjoy the most personal and economic […]
More evidence of what delusional idiots libertarians are!
Europeans suffer under some of the MOST BURDENSOME regulations in the Western World in their daily lives.
This list reads more like a 1960s Drug-Addled-Hippie Wish List.
I would have to take issue with USA’s ‘Freedom of Association’ being a 10.
The civil rights act prevents race based discrimination, which while deplorable, is a morality the government has no right to legislate.
If we really were free at a ’10’, any business could turn anyone away for whatever reason they choose.
The Gay’s Baker case also demonstrates this.
These ratings are interesting, but bear in mind that a concept like “human freedom” cannot be measured objectively. And some of the criteria that this particular study uses are highly debatable.
For example, several factors in their “personal freedom” rating are various crime statistics. They say that if people live in fear of being robbed or killed by criminals, they are not free. True in a sense, but “freedom from fear of crime” is a very different thing from “freedom of speech”. Of course a high crime rate is a bad thing, but that doesn’t make it a freedom issue. I don’t like the heat of tropical countries, but surely it would be absurd for me to say that this makes them “less free”, because people there are not “free from being too hot”.
This gets particularly odd when they count “freedom from terrorism”. They say they measure the ill effects of terrorism by counting the number of people killed, including both the victims and the terrorists. So if country A is attacked by terrorists and 100 innocent victims are killed while the terrorists all escape, and country B is attacked by terrorists and they manage to kill 200 terrorists while no defending soldiers or innocent civilians are hurt, country B will get a LOWER freedom rating because they have more people killed in terrorist attacks — when you count both the terrorists and the intended victims.
It’s not clear from their report, to me anyway, if all the factors they list are given equal weight or if some are weighted heavier than others. So I note that two of the factors in their freedom index relate to freedom of religion, while three relate to gay rights. Does this mean that gay rights is 50% more significant in the final total than freedom of religion? That seems imbalanced.
Another factor in their ratings is whether the country recognizes binding arbitration — people being able to settle disputes through a private arbitrator rather than a judge. This seems oddly specific. How do independent arbitrators inherently make a society more free than, say, a fair and speedy court system?
Societies in which sons get a preference in inheritance over daughters are rated as “less free”. It may be unfair to women, but what does it have to do with freedom? Again, is this survey trying to measure freedom? Or everything that might make a society better or worse? Even if we agree that feminism is superior to traditional sex roles, unless people are forced to practice traditional sex roles, it is not “less free”.
And this doesn’t even get into the fact that all these factors are rated on a 1 to 10 scale, with many of the ratings being subjective.
What does freedom of international movement even mean?
Is it citizens freedom to travel?
Or is it non citizens “freedom” to show up and enter illegally?
As a multi-decade observer of the propaganda that the U.S. Government feeds the largely illiterate public (I have no degree. I do constantly work on my critical thinking skills. I do see through most political jargon. Still working on my own illiteracy.), I have seen similar graphs and articles over the years and it’s great to see the fresh numbers. Thank you. Whatever they’re smoking in Washington, D.C., I want some. 🙂