Freedom in the 50 States

Freedom in the 50 States is one of the most comprehensive and definitive sources on how public policies in each American state impact an individual’s economic, social, and personal freedoms. The Cato Institute’s 2021 edition improves on the methodology for weighting and combining state and local policies to create a comprehensive index, including a new section analyzing how state responses to COVID-19 have affected freedom since the pandemic began. In addition to the report being available as a free download, over 230 policy variables and their sources are available on a companion website for your individual use.

In the 2021 edition, the authors have updated their findings to

• Provide the most up-to-date freedom index yet, including scores as of January 1, 2020.
• Add a new section analyzing how state COVID-19 responses have affected freedom since the pandemic began. This section also discusses significant policy changes and trends since the data cutoff, ensuring that readers have a strong sense of the state of freedom in the states today.
• Refresh their analysis of how the policies driving income growth and interstate migration have changed pre– and post–Great Recession.

In addition to providing the latest rankings as of the beginning of 2020, the 2021 edition provides annual data on economic and personal freedoms and their components back to 2000 (and for some variables, back to 1937 and up through the start of 2021).

Published by the Cato Institute and accompanied by demographic and economic data on each state, Freedom in the 50 States is an essential reference for anyone interested in state policy and in advancing a better understanding of a free society.

William Ruger is vice president for research and policy at the Charles Koch Institute and vice president for foreign policy at Stand Together (where he leads the Koch network’s foreign policy initiative). He was previously an associate professor in the Department of Political Science at Texas State University. Ruger earned his PhD in Politics from Brandeis University and an AB from the College of William and Mary. His scholarship has appeared in a number of academic journals, including International Studies Quarterly, Civil Wars, and Armed Forces and Society. He is the author of the biography Milton Friedman and a coauthor of two books on state politics, including Freedom in the 50 States. Ruger has written op-eds for a number of outlets, such as the New York Times, SA Today, and Foreign Affairs, and he has been interviewed frequently for television and radio, appearing on MSNBC, CNN, and Fox News. Ruger is a veteran of the war in Afghanistan and an officer in the U.S. Navy (Reserve Component). Ruger was nominated by President Donald Trump to serve as the U.S. Ambassador to the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, and was appointed by the president to the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board in 2020. He lives with his wife and two sons in Virginia.

Jason Sorens is director of the Center for Ethics in Society at Saint Anselm College and received his PhD in political science from Yale University in 2003. He has researched and written more than 20 peer-reviewed journal articles and a book, Secessionism (McGill–Queen’s University Press). His research has focused on independence movements around the world, the theory and practice of fiscal federalism, and subnational economic policymaking. He has founded two non-profits, the Free State Project and Ethics and Economics Education. He lives with his wife and daughters in New Hampshire.