Study ranks states by freedom

[LittleRedToyota]

PA is ranked 20th in "overall freedom" and 29th when it comes to "personal freedom".

it's an interesting study done by researchers at george mason university (which is an apporpriate setting given that george mason was the "father of the bill of rights").

http://www.mercatus.org/PublicationD....aspx?id=26154

Freedom in the 50 States: An Index of Personal and Economic Freedom

Jason Sorens, William P. Ruger
February 26, 2009
Social Change Project, Mercatus

This paper presents the first-ever comprehensive ranking of the American states on their public policies affecting individual freedoms in the economic, social, and personal spheres. We develop and justify our ratings and aggregation procedure on explicitly normative criteria, defining individual freedom as the ability to dispose of one’s own life, liberty, and justly acquired property however one sees fit, so long as one does not coercively infringe on another individual’s ability to do the same.

This study improves on prior attempts to score economic freedom for American states in three primary ways: (1) it includes measures of social and personal freedoms such as peaceable citizens’ rights to educate their own children, own and carry firearms, and be free from unreasonable search and seizure; (2) it includes far more variables, even on economic policies alone, than prior studies, and there are no missing data on any variable; and (3) it uses new, more accurate measurements of key variables, particularly state fiscal policies.

We find that the freest states in the country are New Hampshire, Colorado, and South Dakota, which together achieve a virtual tie for first place. All three states feature low taxes and government spending and middling levels of regulation and paternalism. New York is the least free by a considerable margin, followed by New Jersey, Rhode Island, California, and Maryland. On personal freedom alone, Alaska is the clear winner, while Maryland brings up the rear. As for freedom in the different regions of the country, the Mountain and West North Central regions are the freest overall while the Middle Atlantic lags far behind on both economic and personal freedom. Regression analysis demonstrates that states enjoying more economic and personal freedom tend to attract substantially higher rates of internal net migration.

The data used to create the rankings are publicly available online at www.statepolicyindex.com, and we invite others to adopt their own weights to see how the overall state freedom rankings change.

there is a link on that page where you can download a PDF of the actual study. pretty interesting read.

[Kaos]

Table V: Ov erall Freedom Ranking
State Overall Free dom
1. New Hampshire 0.432
2. Colorado 0.421
3. South Dakota 0.392
4. Idaho 0.356
5. Texas 0.346
6. Missouri 0.320
7. Tennessee 0.284
8. Arizona 0.279
9. Virginia 0.275
10. North Dakota 0.268
11. Utah 0.250
12. Kansas 0.210
13. Indiana 0.208
14. Michigan 0.206
15. Wyoming 0.193
16. Iowa 0.183
17. Georgia 0.146
18. Oklahoma 0.143
19. Montana 0.125
20. Pennsylvania 0.102
21. Alabama 0.092
22. Florida 0.068
23. North Carolina 0.019
24. Nevada 0.013
25. Mississippi -0.004
26. Delaware -0.008
27. Oregon -0.009
28. Nebraska -0.018
29. Arkansas -0.023
30. South Carolina -0.040
31. Alaska -0.071
32. Kentucky -0.082
33. West Virginia -0.097
34. Louisiana -0.110
35. Minnesota -0.111
36. New Mexico -0.150
37. Wisconsin -0.199
38. Ohio -0.205
39. Maine -0.214
40. Vermont -0.217
41. Connecticut -0.225
42. Illinois -0.238
43. Massachusetts -0.242
44. Washington -0.275
45. Hawaii -0.304
46. Maryland -0.405
47. California -0.413
48. Rhode Island -0.430
49. New Jersey -0.457
50. New York -0.784

shazam.

Who wants to do the correlation to freedom vs popular vote (R vs D vs I) in last years election?

[PocketProtector]

The last 10 are a surprise.

[sluggie24]

shazam.

Who wants to do the correlation to freedom vs popular vote (R vs D vs I) in last years election?

I can't believe you went there.........

[fingers80002]

Damn, ND is looking better everyday.
There is a co. shutting down an office there, not enough workers.
lowest un-employment in the country......

ETA: Climate close to Alaska!!!!!!!

[NineseveN]

shazam.

Who wants to do the correlation to freedom vs popular vote (R vs D vs I) in last years election?

McCain wins that one pretty easily given a cursory glance:

State Overall Freedom - 2008 Popular Vote
1. New Hampshire 0.432 - Obama
2. Colorado 0.421 - Obama
3. South Dakota 0.392 - McCain
4. Idaho 0.356 - McCain
5. Texas 0.346 - McCain
6. Missouri 0.320 - McCain
7. Tennessee 0.284 - McCain
8. Arizona 0.279 - Mccain
9. Virginia 0.275 - Obama
10. North Dakota 0.268 - McCain
11. Utah 0.250 - McCain
12. Kansas 0.210 - McCain
13. Indiana 0.208 - Obama
14. Michigan 0.206 - Obama
15. Wyoming 0.193 - McCain
16. Iowa 0.183 - Obama
17. Georgia 0.146 - McCain
18. Oklahoma 0.143 - McCain
19. Montana 0.125 - McCain
20. Pennsylvania 0.102 - Obama
21. Alabama 0.092 - McCain
22. Florida 0.068 - Obama
23. North Carolina 0.019 - Obama
24. Nevada 0.013 - Obama
25. Mississippi -0.004 - McCain
26. Delaware -0.008 - Obama
27. Oregon -0.009 - Obama
28. Nebraska -0.018 - McCain
29. Arkansas -0.023 - McCain
30. South Carolina -0.040 - McCain
31. Alaska -0.071 -McCain
32. Kentucky -0.082 - McCain
33. West Virginia -0.097 - Obama
34. Louisiana -0.110 - McCain
35. Minnesota -0.111 - Obama
36. New Mexico -0.150 - Obama
37. Wisconsin -0.199 - Obama
38. Ohio -0.205 - Obama
39. Maine -0.214 - Obama
40. Vermont -0.217 - Obama
41. Connecticut -0.225 - Obama
42. Illinois -0.238 - Obama
43. Massachusetts -0.242 - Obama
44. Washington -0.275 - McCain
45. Hawaii -0.304 - Obama
46. Maryland -0.405 - Obama
47. California -0.413 - Obama
48. Rhode Island -0.430 - Obama
49. New Jersey -0.457 - Obama
50. New York -0.784 - Obama



I wonder if the landscape changes much if we look at the individual aspects of freedom from the study (i.e. economic, civil liberties etc...).

[bortle]

The last 10 are a surprise.

I sense sarcasm in your statement.