Freedom in the 50 States: An Index of Personal and Economic Freedom

[MountainDon]

This is an interesting site. There's a PDF download with charts and maps and all...

This paper presents the first-ever comprehensive ranking of the American states on their public policies affecting individual freedoms in the economic, social, and personal spheres. We develop and justify our ratings and aggregation procedure on explicitly normative criteria, defining individual freedom as the ability to dispose of one's own life, liberty, and justly acquired property however one sees fit, so long as one does not coercively infringe on another individual's ability to do the same.

http://mercatus.org/PublicationDetails.aspx?id=26154

States are graded on Fiscal Policy, Regulatory Policy, Economic Freedom & Personal Freedom. The article has links to other sites on the subject.

The top 5 in overall combined ratings are
1. New Hampshire
2. Colorado
3. South Dakota
4. Idaho
5. Texas

The bottom 5, overall are
46. Maryland
47. California
48. Rhode Island
49. New Jersey
50. New York

My state of NM sucks in all except for personal freedom; we're #3 there but waaaay down the list everywhere else.

New Mexico (#43 economic, #3 personal, #36 overall)
is the laggard of the Mountain West. Spending
and taxes are high, and a quarter of the state's workforce
is on state or local government payrolls (federal
workers add even more to that percentage).
The state does well on personal freedoms because
gun control is light, several kinds of gambling are
allowed, private school regulation is light (but home
school regulation is tougher), asset forfeiture has
been reformed, there are no smoking bans on private
property, and only 12 percent of arrests are for
victimless crimes.

[rwanders]

  Not surprised to see that Alaska was #1 in "personal freedom" by a large margin.

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

Where did you find the list?  I didn't see any link to it, so I'm curious how Oklahoma ranked?

[MountainDon]

Direct link to the Report, PDF Document

There is a D/L link near the top of that other linked page. 

[akemt]

"On personal freedom alone, Alaska is the clear winner..."  Weeha!  Happened to know that one.  One reason I'm leery to ever leave this place.  Gotta love the no-report homeschooling, no building codes/inspections (depending on where you are)

[peternap]

"On personal freedom alone, Alaska is the clear winner..."  Weeha!  Happened to know that one.  One reason I'm leery to ever leave this place.  Gotta love the no-report homeschooling, no building codes/inspections (depending on where you are)

I gotta agree!

[Virginia Gent]

"Virginia (#13 economic, #9 personal, #9 overall)
is by our count the second freest Southern state,
although it is in more or less a statistical tie with
Tennessee. The tax burden, government spending,
and debt are all below national averages. However,
state and local government employment is well
above the national average. Gun laws are about average.
Marijuana laws are largely unreformed. Virginia
is schizophrenic on education, requiring 13 years of
mandatory schooling, including kindergarten attendance,
and imposing significant standardized testing
and notification requirements on home schoolers,
but otherwise leaving both private and home
schools alone. Labor laws are solid. Like Hawaii
and Pennsylvania, Virginia has no form of community
rating for health insurance. However, mandates
are extensive, adding over 64 percent to the cost of
insurance. Natural gas and cable have been "deregulated"
to the consumer. The state has one of the best
liability systems in the country. The state had not
reformed eminent domain as of the end of 2006, but
has since passed new reforms."

Tim Kaine, our lord & master, has done damage to the state if you ask me, but none more than to our economic rating.