
The Cato Institute recently released its annual report on the Human Freedom Index. The index combines measures of economic freedom with measures of personal freedom. The report states:
The Human Freedom Index (HFI) presents a broad measure of human freedom, understood as the absence of coercive constraint.
I’m guessing that the authors, being good scholars, probably wrestled a little with distinguishing between economic freedom and personal freedom. To have effective freedom of the press, for example, you need to be able to have some economic freedom: the freedom to buy paper and printing presses or, in today’s world, the freedom to subscribe to an internet provider and, if the web publication is big enough, the freedom to hire people to write for the web site.
Where does the United States stand? The title tells you: we’re number 17 in a group of 165 countries. So were just a hair short of being in the top 10 percent.
The authors, Ian Vásquez, Matthew D. Mitchell, Ryan Murphy, and Guillermina Sutter Schneider, start with some bad news: freedom worldwide is lower than it was in 2019. They write:
On a scale of 0 to 10, where 10 represents more freedom, the average human freedom rating for 165 jurisdictions fell from 6.98 in 2019 to 6.76 in 2020 and to 6.73 in 2021, and then increased in 2022 to 6.82. On the basis of that coverage, 87.4 percent of the world’s population saw a fall in human freedom from 2019 to 2022, with many more jurisdictions decreasing (130) than increasing (28) their ratings and 7 remaining unchanged. The sharp decline in freedom that began in 2020 comes after years of slow descent following a high point in 2007. In the third year of the pandemic, global freedom remained at a level far below what it was in 2000.
Here are the top 10, in order:
Switzerland, New Zealand, Denmark, Luxembourg, Ireland, and Finland (the first 6), and then Australia, Iceland, and Sweden (tied at 7), and Estonia at 10.
They continue:
Selected jurisdictions rank as follows: Canada (11), Japan (12), Germany (14), United Kingdom and United States (tied at 17), Taiwan (19), Chile (31), South Korea (32), France (34), Brazil (70), South Africa (73), Argentina (80), Mexico (94), India (110), Ukraine (122), Nigeria (126), Russia (139), Turkey (142), China (150), Saudi Arabia (155), Venezuela (159), and Iran (163). Out of 10 regions, those with the highest levels of freedom are North America (Canada and the United States), Western Europe, and Oceania. The lowest levels are in the Middle East and North Africa, sub-Saharan Africa, and South Asia. Women-specific freedoms, as measured by five indicators in the index, are strongest in North America, Western Europe, and East Asia and are least protected in the Middle East and North Africa, sub-Saharan Africa, and South Asia.
Notice that Ukraine is pretty unfree and is only 17 countries higher than Russia. Is there a connection between human freedom and other important measures of human well-being? Yes, big-time. They write:
Jurisdictions in the top quartile of freedom enjoy a significantly higher average per capita income ($56,366) than those in other quartiles; the average per capita income in the least free quartile is $15,826. The HFI also finds a strong, positive relationship between human freedom and democracy, and between human freedom and a range of human well-being indicators including tolerance, charitable giving, life expectancy, and environmental health, among other measures.
The report is long. One nice thing about it is that you can choose a country and then see all of the measures for that country.
Is the index perfect? Not at all. One check I did was to see how it rated freedom of speech in the UK. If you’ve followed the UK lately, you might know that police can come to your door and arrest you for posting thoughts that other people don’t like. Here’s an instance. Yet “Media and expression” gets a 10.0 (the highest possible) from Freedom House. Similarly, in Canada, where I come from, one man was hauled before a so-called “human rights tribunal” for showing hatred and contempt towards homosexuals. What the person did was write a letter to a local newspaper to complain about pro-gay groups “using taxpayer money to propagandize young children” in government schools. Yet the same Freedom House gives Canada a 10.0 rating on “Media and expression.” John Leo, in National Review Online, June 20, 2008, wrote:
After nearly six years of hearings, delays, and argument about the letter, the tribunal convicted him and his group, the Concerned Christian Coalition. As punishment, Boissoin was ordered to pay a hefty fine, apologize in writing and never again make any negative remarks about homosexuality in speeches, on the Internet, or anywhere else. He refuses to comply.
So, as I say, not a perfect index of freedom.
READER COMMENTS
Craig
Dec 24 2024 at 10:37am
Denmark? Nice country, is it a free country? I’d say mostly not free actually though I am admittedly imputing Germany to Northern Europe, generally but allegedly Germany ‘freer’ than the US. And US and UK tied? Really?
David Henderson
Dec 24 2024 at 10:59am
Craig, I have no prior view on this.
What would be interesting (although you might not want to take the time) would be for you to go to all the factors for Denmark and say which ones you think are most exaggerated.
Craig
Dec 24 2024 at 2:17pm
Economic freedom which shows the US as being marginally freer. I elaborated a bit below
steve
Dec 24 2024 at 12:23pm
Always interesting that Singapore which is sometimes hailed as a kind of economic nirvana by some rates so low overall.
Steve
Mark
Dec 24 2024 at 9:46pm
I don’t think even most champions of Singapore’s economic policies deny that it’s not a very free country when it comes to non-economic issues.
Craig
Dec 24 2024 at 2:07pm
First off, let us ignore firearms. I’m ignoring that entirely but I do want to emphasize my comment is based mostly on my experience in Germany.
Quick humorous anecdote, went to the store and it was closed. <– The End.
Actually I would try again and on a random weekday in Ulm the stores were closed, again (its no wonder the Germans have such a high savings rate) and asking why I was informed that it was Schwoertag and while I spoke German fluently enough to understand the radio I didn’t know that word so I briefly translated it into English and got Swear Day. Mentally I briefly had an image of Germans walking around swearing at each other but obviously that would be n.i.o. (nicht in Ordnung) so I asked why and the answer was it was actually inauguration day (swearing in day, reaching for English could’ve worked if I had chosen the right sense of the word swear.)
Nevertheless one overriding theme of Europe is that the society pushes people towards leisure over work. If you ask a European what they think of Americans the first two words that will typically come to mind is ‘fat and stupid’ and I can’t necessarily blame them for saying that, but likewise the first word that comes to my mind thinking of Europeans is ‘lazy’
There’s a reason for that because taxation is so onerous it looms over everything. VAT is 20%+ on virtually every item, in Denmark the car is 120%, gas is $8+ and so this funnels people towards subsidized mass transit (Germans love to wander around das Wald on foot). Indeed I’d suggest the best description of being free in Germany/Northern Europe is that you’re free in their sense of Sozialordnung. Beyond that? No, you’re not free. Governments make the majority of choices there, you might THINK you’re making the choice as between the expensive car and a cheap train when you choose the train but the government is making that choice easier for you to make by making one option artificially more expensive and the other artificially less expensive.
One sees it in rates of entrepreneurship as well:
https://www.gemconsortium.org/news/europe-trails-other-global-regions-in-early-stage-entrepreneurial-activity%2C-according-to-gem-european-regional-report
Entirely rational facing European style taxation because ultimately if you don’t reap enough of what you sow, one will more likely choose some kind of job where they can work 30-40 hours per week, not a minute over 40 EVER, with oodles of vacation time so that they can faulenz their way through life. Or you can start your own business and become, effectively, a compulsory revenue officer for the government.
David Henderson
Dec 24 2024 at 2:48pm
Thanks, Craig.
So maybe the first two words they should think of for us are “fat and productive.” 🙂
By the way, I go to my cottage in Canada every summer (except 2020, when Justin kept me out). One time, I flew in with a friend late on a Sunday afternoon and we went to the nearest Safeway to get groceries for the week. The parking lot was almost empty and I soon found out why: the Safeway had to close, by law, at 6:00 p.m. We were the last customers in the store. We started shopping at about 5:50 and worked our way through like a hurricane, checking out by about 6:01. Fortunately, they gave us a one-minute grace.
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