Here’s How Free Arizona Is Compared To Rest Of America

PHOENIX, AZ — Arizona has been ranked one of the freest states in America, according to a new report from a libertarian think tank. The right-leaning Cato Institute published its “Freedom in the 50 States” report this month. The study is based on how each state’s policies promote fiscal, regulatory and personal freedom.

The researchers collected data on more than 230 state and local public policies that impact individual freedom. Florida was crowned the freest state in America while New Hampshire and West Virginia have seen the most improvement in expanding personal liberties.

Arizona fell between Kansas and South Dakota in the overall freedom rankings. Our best rankings came in various personal freedoms, including educational choice, gun rights, and declining victimless crime arrests. Arizona still has high incarceration rates, a high cigarette tax and comprehensive smoking bans.

"Arizona has moved up in the overall rankings over the last two decades, improving considerably on personal freedom while maintaining above average performance on economic freedom. It has lost ground consistently on regulatory policy but is still ranked in the top 20," the study found.

Here’s how Arizona ranked in each category:

• Fiscal: 18
• Regulatory: 16
• Personal: 14
• Economic: 14
• Lawsuit: 19
• Land: 21
• Marriage: 15
• Education: 1
• Occupational: 13
• Victimless: 2
• Health insurance: 30
• Labor: 26
• Alcohol: 3
• Asset Forfeiture: 31
• Gambling: 35
• Tobacco: 34
• Guns: 3
• Cannabis: 20
• Cable: 46
• Incarceration: 42
• Travel: 21
• Miscellaneous: 1
• Campaign finance: 25

The authors said Arizona has one of the best regulatory policies in the country when it comes to "anti-cronyism" and noted its fiscal policies have been improving. The state has done little though to promote competition in telecommunications and cable.

Measuring freedom is important because people value it, the authors wrote. The U.S. has made great strides when it comes to respecting an individual’s rights regardless of race, sex, age or sexual preference, but some people are facing increasing threats to their interests, the Cato Institute said

The report said groups seeing their personal liberties slide include smokers, builders, affordable housing buyers, aspiring professionals who want to ply a trade without paying “onerous examination and education costs,” and less-skilled workers who’ve been “priced out of the market by minimum wage laws.”

Here are the top 10 freest states, according to the Cato Institute report:

1. Florida
2. New Hampshire
3. Indiana
4. Colorado
5. Nevada
6. North Dakota
7. Tennessee
8. South Dakota
9. Arizona
10. Kansas

Florida and New Hampshire significantly outpaced the other top five states, the authors noted.

“Florida’s rise since 2009 has been nothing short of stunning,” the study said. “While most states have improved on freedom in that time if federalized policies are excluded, Florida’s post-2010 improvement has been the third-greatest in the United States (after Wisconsin and Alaska).”

States that have always performed well in the index — North Dakota, South Dakota, Arizona and Tennessee — once again found themselves in the top 10.

New York is the least free state, as it has been every year of the index since 2000. Hawaii has fallen far enough to put itself well under California, the authors wrote. New Jersey and Vermont rounded out the bottom five.

“New York has been the least free state in the country for a long time,” the study said. “Economic freedom is the most significant weakness, but the state has not kept up with the rest of the country on personal freedom either.”

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