The “Freedom in the 50 States” report presents an overall freedom grade based on 97 public policy measures spread across 10 topic categories. The topic categories are placed into two broad parent categories: Economic Freedom and Personal Freedom. Each topic category has equal weight within each parent category.
The final score is based on a weighted average of those two parent categories to account for the difference in the number of topic categories inside each: four in the Economic Freedom category (equating to a 40 percent weight in the overall score) and six in the Personal Freedom category (equating to a 60 percent weight in the overall score).
Unless otherwise specified, the data used to score states and governors is current as of August 1, 2026.
Each policy variable first receives a numeric score. Unless otherwise specified, that variable score can be one of the following variable types:
While some policy variables stand on their own within the topic category, in most cases, individual policy variables are grouped by type. (For instance, in the Housing Freedom topic category, the variables pertaining to the ability to build a duplex or triplex, or place manufactured housing on a plot of land are all collected into a Housing Types group.)
Many variable groups contain a mix of two or more of the variable types above (such as a percentage variable alongside a continuous variable). Therefore, to make them compatible, they need to be given a normalized score between 0 and 10 before being aggregated.
A continuous variable already has a numeric score of 0–10, so there is no need for it to be normalized. A binary variable is scaled up to 0 or 10 from its original 0 or 1. However, each percentage variable within the group is assigned a normalized score by using a conventional normalization formula. When higher values indicate greater freedom, the formula is ((value − min)/range) × 10. When lower values indicate greater freedom, the formula is ((max − value)/range) × 10. These formulas generate scores ranging from 0 to 10.
The normalized scores for each of the groups are aggregated across all the groups within the topic category and then divided by the number of groups in the category. This results in a percentage score that is then normalized using the same formula as above. That normalized score is now a freedom score for the topic category and is what determines the letter grade.
The freedom scores from all the categories are aggregated and divided by the total number of topic categories (four for Economic Freedom, six for Personal Freedom). Grades for the parent categories are assigned based on this average freedom score for the entire category.
The freedom score for each topic category is the starting point for each governor’s freedom score.
Points are awarded or deducted for each governor pursuant to any bills signed or bills vetoed pertaining to the policy metrics included in the topic category. The goal is to illustrate the direction in which the governor’s actions have moved the state.
In some cases, however, a policy was proposed but never enacted. So, where possible and where we have adequate data, we first recalculate the base score as if the policy were enacted. That may either increase or decrease the base score. In many cases, however, we have to use the proxies of point additions and deductions as described below to approximate the direction of the policy change.
Points are assigned as follows:
Governors can receive multiple additions or subtractions. For example, if they signed two landmark reforms, they would receive 4 points, or if they vetoed two freedom-restricting bills, they would receive 2 points. If they also signed two freedom-restricting bills, the resulting −2 would cancel out two of those positive points earned.
There is a cap of 5 points on the total additions or deductions allowed per topic category. For example, a governor who signed one landmark freedom-enhancing reform (+2) and vetoed four freedom-restricting bills (+4) only receives a total of 5 additional points on top of the base state score. Alternatively, a governor who vetoed six freedom-enhancing bills would otherwise earn −6 points but, because of the cap, receives a deduction of only 5 points from the base state score. Therefore, freedom scores for the governors can be no higher than 15 and no lower than −5.
The governors’ category grades are assigned using the same procedure as step 4 above. The same grading scale is used as well.
The governors’ grades for the parent categories and the final overall grade are also calculated in the same way as the states’, except that we use as a denominator the total possible points that can be earned by a governor (i.e., 15 for a topic category, 60 for Economic Freedom, 90 for Personal Freedom, and 150 for the overall grade). Grades are also assigned to governors based on the relevant freedom scores using the same process as for the states. The grade ranges that apply to the states also apply to the governors.
