Freedom Indices by Country 2026

The Human Freedom Index ranks countries based on the freedom of those living there. This is determined by examining a variety of factors including examining freedoms and restrictions within religion, trade, law, relationships, and several other areas. Freedom is examined over a twenty-year period, which gives a more in-depth picture of how free people are around the world.

Three countries have attained a perfect score of 100: Sweden, Finland, and Norway. All three of these countries have full democracies, and all have press freedom rated as “good.” Interestingly, though, all three countries don’t have top scores for economic freedom, instead bearing the label of only “mostly free.”

In fact, all the top seven countries have a “mostly free” economic freedom status. It’s not until Ireland, at rank eight, that a top ten country is listed as “free” when it comes to economic freedom. Japan and Belgium, ranking nine and ten respectively, are both only rated as “moderately free.” As for press freedom, much like the top three, the top ten are almost all ranked “good.” While New Zealand and Canada are both rated slightly lower with satisfactory, Japan is the outlier with a rating of problematic.

The people of the United States pride themselves on being free, but they only score an 83 on the Freedom in the World Index. This is the same score as South Korea, Romania, and Panama. While all share the same score and are all ranked free, some in the US would be surprised that South Korea has a higher Democracy Index Score than the United States: 8.01 to 7.92. South Korea is also rated a “full democracy” while the US is considered a “flawed democracy.” Both the US and South Korea are considered “mostly free” on the Index of Economic Freedom, although Romania and Panama are both only “moderately free.” However, of the four countries, the US does score the highest for Press Freedom with a score of 71.22 to South Korea’s 70.83. Both are considered to have “satisfactory” press freedom. Romania and Panama are rated “problematic” with press freedom scores of 69.04 and 63.67.

Two countries have a score of 1 on the Freedom in the World Index: Syria and South Sudan. Both are considered “not free,” but Syria’s Press Freedom is rated as “problematic,” while South Sudan’s is rated as “difficult.”