It has been revealed by the most complex index to date, which studied 123 countries, that New Zealanders have the most freedom in the world.
The report, which was only released today by the Fraser Institute, Canada's leading public policy think-tank, and Germany's Liberales Institute, has taken many details into account to comply scores in many different fields which finally result in an overall score. The report examines the characteristics of freedom and how it can best be measured and compared between different nations. New Zealand was ranked number one for offering the highest level of freedom worldwide, followed by the Netherlands at number two and the third place being given to Hong Kong. Australia, Canada and Ireland tied for fourth spot, with the United States and Denmark tied for seventh. The lowest ranked countries were Zimbabwe, Myanmar, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Syria.
The author of the book the Human Freedom Project, Fred McMahon, said: "Our intention is to measure the degree to which people are free to enjoy classic civil liberties-freedom of speech, religion, individual economic choice, and association and assembly-in each country surveyed." In addition Fred said "We also look at indicators of crime and violence, freedom of movement, legal discrimination against homosexuals, and women's freedoms,"
New Zealanders should welcome the new statistics and feel extremely proud but they will not be shocked as we are very used to seeing results like this, just last year New Zealand topped a global survey on The Most Peaceful Places to Live In The World and in the same year came in again at number one for the World Number One In Education. Of course we should not get blaza about the consistent number one rank in differing fields but we can accept they are well deserved and very relevant to those who like to have pride in their country, and it’s good free publicity for the reputation of the country and the people which is a bonus.
Recent reports of the significant decrease in crime throughout New Zealand could have some bearing in this survey with crime rates at an all time low, or it could be our world leading Health Care which hit the headlines named as the envy of the rest of the world. The scores in each field are yet to be published but we can reveal we scored a 1 or 2 out of 10 for each factor.
