Which US state is the most free?
Every state scored 0–100 on ten freedoms — speech, guns, taxes, schools, drugs, due process and more. Re-weight the categories to match what you value, and the ranking recomputes live.
Browsing is free with no sign-up · an account adds follows and alerts · no card required
- States scored
- 50 States scored.
- Countries tracked
- 197 Countries tracked.
- Elected officials
- 584 Elected officials.
- Voting records
- 1,500,000+ Voting records.
- Campaign donors
- 220,000+ Campaign donors.
- Bills tracked
- 21,000+ Bills tracked.
FreedomRankings isn’t just a ranking — it’s a database tracking freedom across every level of American government. All 50 states are scored on 10 freedom categories, 197 countries are ranked globally on a separate universal framework, and every sitting US senator, representative, and governor is profiled with voting records, campaign donors, and accountability scores.
8 of the 10 state categories come from named third-party publications — Fraser Institute, EdChoice, Vera Institute, NORML, Mercatus, Cato, and more — and refresh whenever each publisher releases a new edition. The remaining categories use a clearly labeled FreedomRankings editorial assessment where no annual state-level index exists. Voting records and campaign-donor data update from official congressional and FEC sources.
All data is free, open, and requires no sign-up. Search anything instantly with the keyboard shortcut ⌘K, toggle dark mode for comfortable reading, and track score trends over time. Read the full methodology for complete transparency on every score, source, and weight.
Sourced from
The Index
Ten freedoms. Every state scored.
Each category is a 0–100 score. 8 of the 10 categories are drawn from named third-party publications; 2 — 1st Amendment and Religious Liberty — use a clearly labeled FreedomRankings editorial assessment because no annual state-level index covers them. Third-party categories refresh when the publisher releases a new edition. Click any category to see the state ranking it produces.
1st Amendment
Press shield laws · Anti-SLAPP protections
2nd Amendment
Constitutional/permitless carry · Concealed carry shall-issue vs may-issue
4th Amendment
Civil asset forfeiture protections · Warrant requirements for digital data
Economic Freedom
State income tax rates · Sales tax rates
Criminal Justice
Incarceration rate per capita · Police accountability measures
Drug Policy
Recreational marijuana legality · Medical marijuana program
Property Rights
Eminent domain protections · Zoning flexibility
Religious Liberty
State RFRA (Religious Freedom Restoration Act) · Conscience protections for professionals
Education Choice
School voucher programs · Education savings accounts (ESAs)
Regulatory Burden
Occupational licensing requirements · Business licensing burden
How to use it
Four steps, from a first look to your own feed.
Steps 1–3 need no sign-up at all. Step 4 is what turns the site from something you read into something that watches your state and your representatives for you.
- 1
Open the interactive map
See all 50 states colored by overall freedom score. Hover for a quick number, click a state to drill into its full breakdown, score trends, and elected officials.
Open the map - 2
Pick the freedoms you care about
Slide any category up or down and the ranking re-computes live. Switch between compact, detailed, and heatmap views to see the data your way.
Customize weights - 3
Compare states & look up officials
Put two states side-by-side with bar charts and radar comparisons, or search officials by name or ZIP code to see voting records and donors.
Compare states - 4
Create a free account and follow them
Follow the states and officials you care about and we email you when a followed member of Congress casts a tracked vote or files a stock trade, or a followed state’s score moves. Your quiz and calculator results save to your dashboard.
Create a free account
See your state at a glance.
An interactive US map colored by freedom score. Hover for a number, click any state for its full breakdown, officials, and recent bills.
Open the interactive mapFree Tools
Put the data to work.
Seven interactive tools built on the same dataset that powers the rankings — find your best state, compare tax burdens, check carry-permit reciprocity, look up your officials by ZIP, and more — plus your own dashboard. Every tool is free to run, and a free account saves your results so you can come back to them.
Best State for You Quiz
Rank all 50 states based on the freedoms you actually care about.
Take the quizTax-Savings Calculator
Compare your tax burden between any two states and see how much you could save.
Calculate savingsCCW Reciprocity Map
Find out which states honor your concealed carry permit at a glance.
Check reciprocityFind My Officials
Look up your senators, representatives, and governor by ZIP code.
Find officialsPersonal Freedom Footprint
Answer a few questions about how you actually live and see which states fit your life.
Map your footprintAre You Richer Than Your Governor?
Enter your net worth and see where you land against all 50 governors’ disclosures.
See where you landEmbed a Freedom Score Badge
Put any state’s live score on your own site with one copy-paste snippet.
Get the badgeMy Freedom Dashboard
Your followed states and officials, biggest score movers, and every saved result in one place.
Open dashboardStop looking things up. Let it watch them for you.
Everything on this site is readable without an account. An account is what makes it personal: follow the states and the officials you care about, and FreedomRankings tells you when their record changes instead of making you check. It costs nothing and it never asks for a card.
Follow states and officials
Pick the states you live in, moved from, or are thinking about, and the senators, representatives and governors who answer for them. Free accounts follow five of each.
Get told when something moves
An email when a followed senator or representative casts a tracked vote, files a STOCK Act trade disclosure, or their accountability score changes — and when a followed state’s freedom score shifts. (Governors have no congressional voting record, so theirs cover score changes.)
A dashboard that is actually yours
Your follows, the biggest movers among them, and every quiz result, tax comparison and freedom footprint you have run — saved and re-openable instead of lost on refresh.
A key to the data API
Every account gets an API key. The free tier covers the rankings and states endpoints at 100 requests a day — enough to build something real against before you pay anything.
Free forever · no card required · takes about 20 seconds
The Leaderboard
The most — and least — free states right now.
Based on the default equal-weight blend — national average 57.6/100. Customize the weights to shuffle the order.
Most Free
More to explore
Everything FreedomRankings tracks.
One database behind every surface: 50 states, 197 countries, every sitting federal official, their votes, their donors, their trades, and where the federal government spends its money.
Browse your elected officials
Every US senator, representative, and governor — voting records, donor totals, business interests, and accountability scores. Search by name or ZIP code to find yours.
Search officialsCompare two states head-to-head
Pick any pair of states and see their scores side-by-side with bar charts, radar comparisons, and category-level deltas.
Open compareHow the US stacks up globally
197 countries scored on a separate 10-category universal freedom framework using Fraser HFI, Freedom House, V-Dem, and WJP data.
See country rankingsRead the methodology
Every score, every source, every weight is published. No black boxes; the data you see is the data we used.
Read methodologyCongressional stock trades
STOCK Act periodic transaction reports, parsed and attached to the member who filed them — what they bought, when, and how it lines up with their committee.
See recent tradesFederal spending & workforce
Where federal money and headcount actually go, built from OMB historical tables, USAspending, BLS, and the IRS Data Book — with a page per major agency.
Open the federal hubReader polls & predictions
Vote in running polls and put a public call on the record in the prediction market — then see how the crowd did against the outcome.
Make a predictionA public data API
Query rankings, states, officials, votes, and finance data as JSON. Every account gets a key — free keys cover the ranking endpoints, paid keys cover the rest.
Read the API docsPlans
Free to read. Paid if you need the whole file.
There is no display advertising on this site, so the paid tiers are what fund it. They also unlock the depth the free tier caps: full donor lists, complete vote history, stock-trade disclosures, exports, and the API.
Citizen
Free forever
For anyone who wants to keep an eye on their own state.
- Full access to maps, rankings, and state profiles
- Follow up to 5 states
- Weekly email digest
- Top 5 donors per official
Supporter
$5/month
For regulars who follow more than a handful of states.
- Everything in Citizen
- Follow all 50 states
- No ads or sponsored links
- Daily email digest
Pro
$15/month
For journalists, researchers, and anyone who needs the full record.
- Everything in Supporter
- Full donor lists on every official
- Donor geographic map + contribution breakdowns (size, gender)
- Full business interests (Schedule III positions)
Cancel anytime · students get 50% off Pro · invite a friend and earn Pro time
Learn
17 explainers. Every state compared.
Plain-language guides backed by sourced data — so you can compare state laws without the legalese.
Gun Carry Laws by State: Constitutional & Open Carry in 2026
Constitutional (permitless) carry is legal in 29 states and open carry in roughly 39. The full 2026 map, plus reciprocity and sensitive-place rules.
Read moreState Tax Burden: Income, Sales & Property Taxes Compared
All three big state taxes compared: the 9 states with no income tax, the 5 with no sales tax, and property rates from 0.28% to 2.23%. Find your real burden.
Read moreDrug Laws by State: Marijuana, Psilocybin & Kratom in 2026
Where marijuana, psilocybin, and kratom are legal in 2026. The difference between legal, decriminalized, medical, and supervised access - state by state.
Read moreSelf-Defense Laws by State: Stand Your Ground & Castle Doctrine
Castle doctrine, stand your ground, and duty to retreat explained. Which of the three applies in your state, and what removing the duty to retreat does not do.
Read moreSchool Choice by State: ESAs, Vouchers & Homeschool Laws
Education savings accounts, universal school choice in 19 states, and homeschool regulation tiers. What universal really means and which states have funded seats.
Read morePrivacy Laws by State: Data Rights, Biometrics & Recording Consent
The 20 states with comprehensive data privacy laws, the 3 with biometric statutes, and the 11 requiring all-party consent to record. Your rights by state in 2026.
Read moreFAQ
Common questions
What is the freest state in the US?
Utah ranks #1 overall in the current FreedomRankings index, with a 74/100 score across ten freedom categories. Rankings shift as you re-weight the categories, so the "freest" state depends on which freedoms matter most to you.
How are the state freedom rankings calculated?
Each state gets a 0–100 score built from 10 categories — constitutional rights, economic freedom, gun rights, school choice, drug policy, criminal justice, and more. 8 of the 10 categories are drawn from named third-party publications; 2 — 1st Amendment and Religious Liberty — use a clearly labeled FreedomRankings editorial assessment because no annual state-level index covers them. By default every category is weighted equally, and you can change the weights anytime.
Which state has the least freedom?
Hawaii currently sits at #50 on the default equal-weight blend. Like the top of the list, the bottom reorders the moment you adjust the category weights to reflect your own priorities.
Can I weight the categories myself?
Yes. Don’t think gun rights and tax burden should count the same? Slide any category up or down and the entire 50-state ranking recomputes instantly — no account required.
Where does the data come from?
State scores come from established, annually-updated publications: Guns & Ammo, Institute for Justice, Fraser Institute, Vera Institute, NORML / DISA / NCSL, EdChoice and Mercatus Center. 8 of the 10 categories are drawn from named third-party publications; 2 — 1st Amendment and Religious Liberty — use a clearly labeled FreedomRankings editorial assessment because no annual state-level index covers them. Country scores use a separate international set — Fraser HFI, Freedom House, V-Dem and the World Justice Project — and voting records, donor totals and stock-trade disclosures come from official congressional and FEC sources. Every score, source and weight is published on the methodology page.
Do you rank countries too?
Yes — 197 countries are scored 0–100 using Fraser HFI, Freedom House, V-Dem, and World Justice Project data. Note that the international index uses its own 10 universal categories (free expression, due process, movement, privacy, political participation, and so on) rather than the US state categories, because the state framework is built around US constitutional rights that have no direct equivalent abroad. Both are 0–100 scales, but they come from different frameworks and are not directly interchangeable measurements.
Is FreedomRankings free to use?
Yes. Every ranking, map, comparison tool, official profile, and voting record is open to everyone with no sign-up and no paywall, and the full methodology is published so you can verify the scores yourself. A free account adds the personal layer — following states and officials, alerts, and a dashboard — and optional paid plans ($5 Supporter, $15 Pro) fund the work and unlock full donor lists, complete vote history, exports, and the data API. The site carries no display advertising. We run Google Analytics, which sets cookies, but no ad network. We do not sell personal data; the privacy policy lists exactly what is collected.
What do I get with a free FreedomRankings account?
A free account lets you follow up to 5 states and 5 officials, get email alerts when a followed member of Congress casts a key vote or files a stock trade and when a followed state’s score changes, save your quiz and calculator results, read a weekly digest, and call the public data API at 100 requests a day. No card required.
What is the difference between the free, Supporter, and Pro plans?
Citizen is free: full browsing, 5 follows, weekly digest, top 5 donors per official. Supporter ($5/month) removes sponsored links, unlocks all 50 state follows, a daily digest, and 1,000 API calls a day. Pro ($15/month) adds full donor lists and donor maps, complete vote history, STOCK Act trade disclosures, multi-year score trends, five-state comparisons, CSV/JSON export, instant alerts, and 10,000 API calls a day.
Can I get alerts when my representative votes or trades stock?
Yes. Follow any senator or representative from a free account and FreedomRankings emails you when they cast a tracked vote, file a STOCK Act trade disclosure, or their accountability score moves. Governors can be followed too, but they hold no congressional voting record, so their alerts cover score and profile changes rather than votes and trades. Free accounts get a weekly digest; Supporter gets it daily and Pro gets instant alerts.
How often are the rankings updated?
State and country scores refresh whenever the underlying third-party publishers release new editions — typically annually. Elected-official profiles, voting records, and campaign-donor data update more frequently from congressional data sources.
Can I use FreedomRankings data for research or journalism?
Yes. All scores, weights, and sources are published openly on the methodology page. You are welcome to cite FreedomRankings in academic papers, news articles, or policy analysis — just link back so readers can verify.
How does FreedomRankings compare to the Cato Freedom Index?
Cato is one of the sources FreedomRankings draws from, but FreedomRankings blends ten distinct indices into a single score and lets you re-weight the categories yourself. It also adds elected-official profiles, voting records, and global country rankings that Cato does not cover.
Does FreedomRankings track local or city-level laws?
Not yet — rankings currently operate at the state and country level. The underlying indices measure state-level policy, so city-by-city variation within a state is not broken out. Local-level tracking is on the roadmap.
What keyboard shortcuts does FreedomRankings support?
Press ⌘K (or Ctrl+K) to instantly search any state, page, or tool. Press ? to see all shortcuts, T to toggle dark mode, and G followed by a letter to jump to pages (H for home, R for rankings, M for map, O for officials, C for compare).
Can I track how state freedom scores change over time?
Yes. Every state page shows a trend sparkline and score delta comparing the current hybrid index to the Cato 2023 baseline. The rankings table also includes a Trend column with sparklines for all 50 states, so you can see which states are gaining or losing freedom at a glance.
Find your state’s score in 30 seconds. Keep it in one more.
Open the map, click your state, see the breakdown — no sign-up for any of it. Then create a free account to follow that state and your representatives, and let us tell you when their record changes.