How Free is Your State?

Someone finally did a study ranking the most free vs. the least free states. How "free" are you?

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.

Here's a freedom map.

(click to enlarge)

Don't expect these rankings to stay as they are. We're all about to become a lot less free as states levy higher taxes to account for financial shortfalls. There's also what I call the "New York effect". Yankees emigrating to other states (ironically to avoid high taxes) and exporting their high tax ways. Don't scoff, there is some validity to the charge. And I'll prove it soon.