How Free Is Your State?

Our friends at the Cato Institute have a great new promotional video for the latest edition of their annual “Freedom in the 50 States” report. 

This report gives each state an overall freedom ranking by measuring a combination of personal and economic freedoms. Policies on everything from healthcare and education to marriage and taxes figure into their calculation, cutting across traditional partisan and ideological expectations. I won’t give the results away, except to say that fans of the Sunshine State may have some celebrating to do. 

Here’s the official summary of the video:

Which state is the freest, and what does it mean to be free? Which state has the most heavily taxed and regulated economy? Which state has the best protections for personal freedom? Where does your state rank? Is it among the freest or most coercive?

In this special Cato Connects, Freedom in the 50 States authors William P. Ruger and Jason Sorens discuss the data on more than 230 variables to measure freedom now and in the past. They go beyond describing policies and analyze why some states have smaller and better governments.

The 2018 edition of Freedom in the 50 States presents an updated ranking of the American states based on how their policies promote fiscal, regulatory, and personal freedom. Freedom in the 50 States is an essential work for anyone interested in state policies and in advancing a better understanding of a free society.