A new study from the Mercatus Center at George Mason University ranks North Carolina 23rd in its freedom index of all states.
The report uses a variety of factors for its freedom judgements, such as state laws on firearms, taxes, and unreasonable search and seizure. It concludes:
We find that the freest states in the country are New Hampshire, Colorado, and South
Dakota, which together achieve a virtual tie for first place. All three states feature low taxes and government spending and middling levels of regulation and paternalism. New York is the least free by a considerable margin, followed by New Jersey, Rhode Island, California, and Maryland. On personal freedom alone, Alaska is the clear winner, while Maryland brings up the rear. As for freedom in the different regions of the country, the Mountain and West North Central regions are the freest overall while the Middle Atlantic lags far behind on both economic and personal freedom. Regression analysis demonstrates that states enjoying more economic and personal freedom tend to attract substantially higher rates of internal net migration.
In case you’re wondering, the 15 lowest ranking states all went for Obama in 2008.
