Freedom Footprint
What’s your personal freedom footprint?
Tick the statements that describe your life. We weight all 50 states by what you actually do — and show the ones that fit you best.
What Is a Freedom Footprint?
Your freedom footprint is the intersection of how you actually live and the laws that govern the place you call home. Two people in the same state can have radically different freedom experiences: a gun owner in a state with strict firearms laws feels constraints that a non-owner never notices, while a small-business owner in a low-regulation state enjoys advantages that a salaried employee might take for granted.
This tool quantifies that personal dimension. Instead of asking which freedoms matter to you in the abstract, it asks how you live — then weights every state accordingly. The result is a ranked list that reflects your life, not a generic policy scorecard.
Whether you are planning a cross-country move, evaluating remote-work destinations, or simply curious how your current state stacks up against the alternatives, your freedom footprint gives you a concrete, data-backed starting point.
How the Footprint Tool Differs from the Quiz
The best-state quiz asks you to rate abstract freedom categories — how much do you value economic freedom, drug policy, education choice? That approach works well when you already think in policy terms. The freedom footprint flips the question: it asks what you do, not what you believe. Do you own firearms? Run a business? Homeschool your kids? Your answers map to the same underlying categories, but the entry point is your daily reality rather than a political framework.
The result is more concrete and more shareable. Telling a friend "my freedom footprint says New Hampshire is my top match" is more compelling than "I weighted economic freedom at 4 out of 5." Both tools use the same data — the footprint just meets you where you are.
Common Lifestyle Profiles and Their Best States
Not sure where to start? Here are a few archetypes and the kinds of states that tend to score highest for each. Select the matching statements above to see your own personalized ranking.
The Gun-Owning Homesteader
Prioritizes Second Amendment rights, property protections, and low taxes. States with constitutional carry, no income tax, and minimal zoning restrictions consistently rise to the top — think the Mountain West and parts of the Deep South.
The Remote-Working Entrepreneur
Cares most about tax burden, business-friendly regulation, and personal privacy. States with no income tax, streamlined LLC formation, and strong data-privacy laws tend to dominate — especially when the commute is no longer a constraint.
The Privacy-Conscious Family
Values education choice, property rights, and limits on government surveillance. States with robust homeschooling protections, strong Fourth Amendment records, and favorable property-rights laws score well for this profile.
The Cannabis-Friendly Minimalist
Supports legal cannabis and lighter drug laws while also caring about personal privacy and low regulatory overhead. States with full recreational legalization, progressive criminal-justice reform, and minimal bureaucratic friction rank highest.
Common questions
What is a “freedom footprint”?
It’s a personalized fit score across all 50 states based on how you actually live. Each statement you select — owning a firearm, caring about taxes, raising kids, supporting legal cannabis — increases the weight of the matching freedom category, then we re-rank every state for your specific mix.
How is this different from the best-state quiz?
The best-state quiz asks you to rate abstract freedom categories directly. The freedom footprint asks about your real-world lifestyle and translates that into the same weighting under the hood — a friendlier on-ramp if you’d rather describe your life than rank policy areas.
Where does the underlying state data come from?
Every state is scored across ten freedom categories using sourced data behind the FreedomRankings index — the same dataset powering our public rankings. You can switch the scoring source on the rankings page to see how the order shifts.
What is the best state for gun owners who also want low taxes?
States that rank highly in both Second Amendment protections and economic freedom tend to cluster in the Mountain West and Deep South. Select "I own (or want to own) firearms" and "Keeping more of my income matters a lot" in the tool above to see your personalized ranking — it will weight both categories heavily and surface the best overlap states for your profile.
Which state is best for homeschooling families?
Education-choice scores vary widely. States with minimal reporting requirements and strong parental-rights traditions score highest. Toggle the school-choice and property-rights statements in the footprint tool to see which states reward family-centric lifestyles.
Can remote workers use this to find the most free state?
Absolutely. Remote workers often care most about tax burden, regulatory climate for small businesses, and personal privacy. Select the income, business, and privacy statements above and the tool will re-rank all 50 states for that combination — no commute-time trade-offs to worry about.
What is the best state for cannabis users?
Drug-policy scores reflect whether a state has legalized recreational cannabis, decriminalized possession, or maintains strict prohibition. Select the cannabis statement to boost that category. States with full legalization and lighter penalties will rise to the top of your personalized ranking.
Which state is best for privacy and off-grid living?
Privacy-conscious and off-grid lifestyles benefit from strong Fourth Amendment protections, minimal surveillance infrastructure, and favorable property-rights laws. Toggle the privacy and property-rights statements to see which states offer the most autonomy for people who want to live independently.
Is this tool useful for small business owners?
Yes. Small-business owners face a unique combination of tax burden, licensing requirements, and regulatory overhead. The footprint tool lets you select business and income statements simultaneously, surfacing states where the regulatory and fiscal climate is most favorable for entrepreneurs.
How is the freedom footprint score calculated?
Each lifestyle statement you select boosts the weight of one or more freedom categories. The tool then recalculates a weighted average across all ten categories for every state, producing a personalized score out of 100. States where your high-priority categories are strongest rise to the top.
Can I use this tool to compare just two or three states?
The tool ranks all 50 states at once, so you can easily compare any subset. Select your lifestyle statements, then look for the states you are considering in the ranked list. Each state displays its personalized score, making side-by-side comparison straightforward.