ALL ALONG THE ANGLOSPHERE:

Yet again, Hong Kong takes the top spot in the EFW rankings--a position it has held since 1980. Singapore remains second, as it has since 2005. The remaining top 10 most free nations are: New Zealand, Switzerland, Ireland, the United States, Georgia, Mauritius, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada, the latter two being tied for 10th spot. The three least free countries are Argentina, Libya, and Venezuela.

The positions of the economies in the EFW matter because there is a significant correlation between economic freedom and human well-being. To analyze this, the Fraser Institute splits the 161 measured countries into quartiles (i.e. each quartile represents a quarter of the economies) based on their level of economic freedom.

The average income in the freest quartile of nations is a staggering 7.1 times higher than the average income in the least free quartile ($40,376 and $5,649 respectively). The bottom 10 percent of income earners in the freest countries make, on average, 7.9 times more than the poorest 10 percent in the least free quartile. Comparatively, extreme poverty (as defined by the World Bank as an income of $1.90 per day) is almost non-existent in the freest countries. 

Tweet   @brothersjudd