Canada no longer features in the list of the freest countries on Earth according to Human Freedom Index which measures personal freedom.
Human Freedom Index (HFI) uses 83 distinct indicators of personal and economic freedom in the following areas —the rule of law, safety and security, identity and relationships (i.e. the freedom to choose your relationship partner), freedom of movement, speech, assembly and religion—alongside economic freedom, the ability of individuals to make their own economic decisions.
The HFI covers 165 jurisdictions for 2020, the most recent year for which sufficient data are available.
Based on the latest data, Canada now ranks 13th freest country in the world, down from 6th position based on 2019 data.
Credit: HFI report/Fraser Institute/Cato Institute.
Switzerland, New Zealand, Estonia, Denmark, Ireland, Sweden, Iceland, Finland, the Netherlands and Luxembourg are the ten freest countries while the five least–free countries are (in descending order) Egypt, Iran, Venezuela, Yemen and Syria according to the new study released today by Fraser Institute and the U.S.-based Cato Institute.
Rankings for the other significant countries are as follows:
- Taiwan (14)
- Japan (16)
- Germany (18)
- United Kingdom (20)
- United States (23)
- South Korea (30)
- Chile (32)
- France (42)
- Argentina (74)
- South Africa (77)
- Brazil (80)
- Ukraine (89)
- Mexico (98)
- India (112)
- Russia (119)
- Nigeria (124)
- Turkey (130)
- China (152)
- Saudi Arabia (159)
- Iran (162)
- Venezuela (163)
- Syria (165)
The Human Freedom Index report finds that 94.3 per cent of the world’s population experienced a decline in freedom from 2019 to 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Across the world, those with the highest levels of freedom are Western Europe, North America (Canada and the United States), and Oceania. The lowest levels are in the Middle East and North Africa, sub-Saharan Africa, and South Asia.
Women-specific freedoms are strongest in North America, Western Europe, and East Asia and are least protected in the Middle East and North Africa, South Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa.
A detailed report, Human Freedom Index 2022 is available here.
View Comments (1)
You need to revise a lot of Canada's points you have made, completely false, "Freedom of Assembly = 10" not even close. Censorship bills, legacy media propaganda, free speech imprisionment. This article is so misleading.