Tag Archives: Freedom

How free are different world regions?

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The western world loves freedom a lot, with Northern Europe being at the top, whereas regions with predominantly Muslim populations have many restrictions and end up at the end of the (circular) list with low averages.

What: Freedom indices recalculated to fit the range from 0 to 1, where 1 means the best index and 0 means the worst (in 3 out of 5 cases – it’s North Korea). Simple averages were calculated for the regions.
Index, When, Source:
Democracy Index, 2019, EIU
Human Freedom Index, 2017, The Human Freedom Index 2018: A Global Measurement of Personal, Civil, and Economic Freedom
Economic Freedom Index, 2020, The Heritage Foundation
Moral Freedom Index, 2020, The Foundation for the Advancement of Liberty
Press Freedom Index, 2020, Reporters Without Borders
Where: 172 countries were ranked on at least 3 of these indices.

P.S. Radial representation is to make this chart more entertaining for its creator.

Is freedom consistent between fields?

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Different freedom indices measure different fields of freedom – press, economy or general human freedom. Are they consistent within a country?

As we see from the 2nd segment of this chart – no, freedoms are not consistent. Economic freedom index is quite often much higher than indices of other freedoms, especially in those countries at the low end. I did my best to adjust the indices so their ranges are uniform, but their averages are still quite different – most countries love economic freedom, while many of them do not care much about democracy or moral freedom.

What: Freedom indices recalculated to fit the range from 0 to 1, where 1 means the best index and 0 means the worst (in 3 out of 5 cases – it’s North Korea). Country average is a simple average of all 5 indices.
Index, When, Source:
Democracy Index, 2019, EIU
Human Freedom Index, 2017, The Human Freedom Index 2018: A Global Measurement of Personal, Civil, and Economic Freedom
Economic Freedom Index, 2020, The Heritage Foundation
Moral Freedom Index, 2020, The Foundation for the Advancement of Liberty
Press Freedom Index, 2020, Reporters Without Borders
Where: 172 countries were ranked on at least 3 of these indices.

P.S. This chart reminds me a forest of mushrooms.

Is freedom consistent within a country?

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I’ve found five freedom indices measuring various fields of freedom. The question is whether all those measures are consistent within countries, or do they vary a lot?

The answer is in the chart below the chart below – more often they’re consistent than not. Exceptions are in some Muslim countries which do not like moral freedom or democracy – those ratings are low, but they want high economic freedom – so this one particular rating is often high.

What: Freedom indices recalculated to fit the range from 0 to 1, where 1 means best index and 0 means the worst (in 3 out of 5 cases – it’s North Korea)
Index, When, Source:
Democracy Index, 2019, EIU
Human Freedom Index, 2017, The Human Freedom Index 2018: A Global Measurement of Personal, Civil, and Economic Freedom
Economic Freedom Index, 2020, The Heritage Foundation
Moral Freedom Index, 2020, The Foundation for the Advancement of Liberty
Press Freedom Index, 2020, Reporters Without Borders
Where: 172 countries were ranked on at least 3 of these indices.

Which belief is related the most with freedom?

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Which belief is related the most with freedom?

Since the freedom of religion has decreased since 2008, let’s see how beliefs themselves relate to freedom. Again, people living in the least religious countries are the freest, and those living in Islamic countries are the least free. There is a tiny nuance, that Christianity and “No religion” is the most common pair of significant beliefs in a country, so, they’re quite related. However, the second most common pair is Christianity and Islam.

What: Average Human Freedom Index by belief. It was calculated only for those countries where followers of a particular belief make more than 10% of the population and it was weighted by that percentage. Judaism and “Other beliefs” were excluded because they had only 1 country complying with such criteria.
When: 2016 for Freedom 2020 for religion (it’s an estimate) because the latest actual data were of 2010.
Where: 147 countries of the world.
Source: Pew Research Center and The Human Freedom Index 2018: A Global Measurement of Personal, Civil, and Economic Freedom

How have human freedoms changed?

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How have human freedoms changed?

The Human Freedom Index consists of many subindexes covering various areas of people’s personal and economic life. After seeing that the average Human Freedom index of the world has decreased I decided to check what subindexes decreased the most and what increased. So, the winner is the “Sound Money” index which means, that money are safe from inflation and people can have foreign currency accounts. The loser is the “Religion” index, which mean that people have less freedom to establish and operate a religious organization.

What: Human Freedom Index – differences between subindex averages in 2016 and 2008.
When: 2008 and 2016
Where: 162 countries
Source: The Human Freedom Index 2018: A Global Measurement of Personal, Civil, and Economic Freedom

P.S. I must agree, those patterns on bars are terrible.

Is the world becoming freeer?

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Is the world becoming freeer?

That’s rather disappointing. We talk a lot about same-sex marriage, which is allowed in more and more countries, but the overall situation is becoming worse.

Sadly the latest data is not very fresh, it’s 2016.

P.S. The word “freeer” is amazing, it has three consecutive letters “e”. Too bad it is not in the dictionary.

What: Human Freedom Index – the difference between regional averages in 2016 and 2008.
When: 2008 and 2016
Where: 162 countries grouped into regions
Source: The Human Freedom Index 2018: A Global Measurement of Personal, Civil, and Economic Freedom