The HFI is the most comprehensive freedom index so far created for a globally meaningful set of countries and jurisdictions, representing 98 percent of the world’s population. The HFI covers 165 jurisdictions for 2023, the most recent year for which sufficient data are available. The index ranks jurisdictions over a span of more than two decades, beginning in 2000, the earliest year for which a robust-enough index could be produced.

Human freedom deteriorated severely in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic and remained low four years after the outbreak of the disease. Most areas of freedom fell, including significant continued declines in freedom of expression and freedom of association and assembly, and significant declines in freedom of movement and in sound money. After having fallen significantly in 2020 and further in 2021, global human freedom increased somewhat in 2022 but remained unchanged in 2023 and was still well below its pre-pandemic level. On a scale of 0 to 10, where 10 represents more freedom, the average human freedom rating for 165 jurisdictions fell from 6.97 in 2019 to 6.75 in 2020 and 6.72 in 2021, then increased to 6.81 in 2022 and remained at that level in 2023.

The data show that there is an unequal distribution of freedom in the world, with only 13.8 percent of the world’s population living in the top quartile of jurisdictions in the HFI and 39.4 percent living in the bottom quartile.

The countries that took the top 10 places, in order, were Switzerland, Denmark, New Zealand, Ireland, Luxembourg, Estonia, Finland, Czechia, Netherlands, and Australia. Selected jurisdictions rank as follows: Canada (12), Taiwan (14), United States (15), Germany (17), Japan and United Kingdom (tied at 19), Chile (25), France (33), South Korea (35), Brazil (66), South Africa (71), Argentina (81), Mexico (91), India (110), Ukraine (119), Nigeria (123), Turkey (144), Saudi Arabia (148), China (149), Russia (152), Venezuela (159), and Iran (164). Out of 10 regions, those with the highest levels of freedom are North America (Canada and the United States), Western Europe, and Oceania. The lowest levels are in the Middle East and North Africa, sub-Saharan Africa, and South Asia. Women-specific freedoms, as measured by five indicators in the index, are strongest in North America, Western Europe, and Eastern Europe and are least protected in the Middle East and North Africa, sub-Saharan Africa, and South Asia.

There is a strong relationship between freedom and median and per capita income. Jurisdictions in the top quartile of freedom enjoy a significantly higher average per capita income ($53,635) than those in other quartiles; the average per capita income in the least free quartile is $14,201. The HFI also finds a strong positive relationship between human freedom and democracy, and between human freedom and a range of human well-being indicators including tolerance, charitable giving, life expectancy, and environmental health, among other measures.

The findings in the HFI suggest that freedom plays an important role in human well-being, and they offer opportunities for further research into the complex ways in which freedom influences, and can be influenced by, political regimes, economic development, and the whole range of indicators of human well-being.