Freedom Index Rating States : Florida Wins

The freedom to chose rules the day - as the saying goes  "freedom means having nothing else to lose". Those in New York or California will know this first hand.

First in Freedom Index
Source: John Locke Foundation, "First in Freedom Index," February 2015.

February 11, 2015

The John Locke Foundation, a North Carolinian think tank, create an index to rate the freedom of individual states, giving 50% weight to fiscal policy, a measure of taxation and budget policy, 20% to educational policy, 20% to regulatory policy, and 10% to health care policy.  Here are the most interesting results from the report:

• The most free states in order from most free to 5^th most free are: Florida, Arizona, Indiana, South Dakota, and Georgia.
• The least free states in order from worst to 5^th worse are: New York, New Jersey, California, West Virginia, and Kentucky.
• The most fiscally free states are: South Dakota, Wyoming, Nevada, Texas, and Florida.
• The most educationally free states are: Florida, Arizona, Indiana, Georgia, and Louisiana.
• The states the most free from regulation are: Iowa, Georgia, South Dakota, Oklahoma, and Vermont.
• The states most free in health-care choice are: Idaho, South Dakota, Utah, Wyoming, and Indiana.