TORONTO—Canada ranks sixth overall while the United States continues to decline—this year dropping to 23rd—in the Human Freedom Index, released this week by the Fraser Institute and a network of international public policy think-tanks.
The index—which uses 79 indicators of personal, civil and economic freedoms to rank 159 countries and jurisdictions around the world—includes rankings from 2008 to 2014, the most recent year of available data.
Since 2014, the federal government, and provincial governments in Alberta and Ontario, have introduced legislation and regulations that encroach on economic freedom, which could affect Canada’s human freedom ranking in the coming years.
“Canadians are generally free to enjoy civil liberties such as freedom of speech and religion, and women’s rights, but the more government hampers our ability to trade and conduct business openly, the less free we become,” said Fred McMahon, Dr. Michael A. Walker Research Chair in Economic Freedom at the Fraser Institute and editor of the study.
Hong Kong remains the freest jurisdiction in the world, followed by Switzerland, New Zealand, Ireland and Denmark. Canada is tied for sixth with Australia and the United Kingdom. Other notable countries include Germany (13), the U.S. (23), France (31), Japan (32), Russia (115) and China (141).
Last year, the U.S. ranked 20th.
And Hong Kong’s top ranking may surprise many.
“While the freedom index doesn’t measure democracy, democracy remains the best safeguard of personal freedoms, so if China encroaches on its one-country, two-system relationship with Hong Kong, we can expect Hong Kong’s ranking to drop,” McMahon said.
The 10 freest jurisdictions (from top)
1. Hong Kong
2. Switzerland
3. New Zealand
4. Ireland
5. Denmark
6. Canada
6. Australia
6. United Kingdom
9. Finland
10. Netherlands
The 10 least free countries
150. Angola
151. Democratic Republic of Congo
152. Algeria
153. Myanmar
154. Venezuela
155. Central African Republic
156. Syria
157. Iran
158. Yemen
159. Libya
