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Press Release:The 2006 State of World Liberty Index released; Estonia named world’s freest countryDate: August 12, 2006 The State of World Liberty Project, a just-launched organization monitoring the level of individual and economic freedom in the world and supporting the political progress of free liberal and libertarian movements around the world, formally released the 2006 State of World Liberty Index today. The index is a compilation of data from four separate indices measuring economic or individual freedom, ranking countries from most to least free on a scale of 100 to zero. The 159 countries included were judged on three areas: individual freedom, economic freedom and government size and taxation. The information compiled by the State of World Liberty Index came from The Fraser Institute/The Cato Institute’s “2005 Economic Freedom of the World” Index, The Heritage Foundation/Wall Street Journal’s “2006 Index of Economic Freedom,” Freedom House’s “2005 Freedom in the World” index and Reporter’s Without Borders’ “2005 Press Freedom Index.” Estonia topped this year’s list, with a final score of 85.25 out of 100. Since the country won its independence from the USSR following the non-violent Singing Revolution, the country has cherished its independence by initiating free market reforms, limiting government power, lowering taxes and greatly expanding individual freedoms. North Korea was the lowest ranked country, with a score of 6.2. The world received a failing average of 56.9%. However, the organization sees promising signs in the future, as free liberal movements are growing in countries like Mongolia, Poland and Costa Rica.
* the US's score was less than 1/1000th of a point lower than Great Britain's score. Next...
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