The State of World Liberty Index was a combination of indices compiled originally in 2006 by Nick Wilson. Since then, I've periodically updated the index. My methodology is similar to the original with the following exceptions: I use only the civil liberties portion of Freedom House, economic liberty (Fraser/Heritage) is weighted evenly with social liberty, and the Reporters without Borders Press Freedom Scores are of equal weight to each of the Freedom House Civil Liberties sub-components. All changes are done with the purpose of creating the most accurate relative ranking of countries by the degree of liberty (economic and social) enjoyed by the average individual within the state or territory. Note, the ranking is not reflective of, nor does it include, political or electoral rights. Where data is available, territories or colonies (e.g. Hong Kong) are included.
Full Rankings are here.
2016 Liberty by Quintile. Colors represent countries grouped by quintiles in order of blue (top 20%), green (20-40%), yellow (40-60%), orange (60-80%), and red (80-100%).
2016 Five Year change in Liberty. Blue is an increase in rank by >20 and green >10 since 2012. Orange is a fall in rank of >10 and red >20 since 2012.
2016 Most Free Countries:
1. New Zealand
2. Switzerland
3. Canada
4. Australia
4. Ireland
6. Finland
6. Netherlands
6. Denmark
6. Chile
6. Luxembourg
2016 Most Tyrannical States
1. North Korea
2. Syria
3. Eritrea
4. Turkmenistan
5. Cuba
6. Venezuela
7. Libya
8. Uzbekistan
8. Iran
8. Equatorial Guinea
Colored maps modified from images at outline-world-map.com