Americans are known to cherish their freedom and a recent study published Thursday by the George Mason University's Mercatus Center, titled "Freedom in the 50 States," shows Americans are migrating more towards free Republicans states and away from less-free liberal states.
Via IBD:
Americans are migrating from less-free liberal states to more-free conservative states, where they are doing better economically, according to a new study published Thursday by the George Mason University's Mercatus Center.
The "Freedom in the 50 States" study measured economic and personal freedom using a wide range of criteria, including tax rates, government spending and debt, regulatory burdens, and state laws covering land use, union organizing, gun control, education choice and more.
It found that the freest states tended to be conservative "red" states, while the least free were liberal "blue" states.
The freest state overall, the researchers concluded, was North Dakota, followed by South Dakota, Tennessee, New Hampshire and Oklahoma. The least free state by far was New York, followed by California, New Jersey, Hawaii and Rhode Island.
Furthermore the "Freedom in the 50 States study finds states with more freedom see stronger income growth, particularly in states with more regulatory freedom.
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IBD has previously reported that red states saw stronger job growth, lower unemployment and bigger gains in per capita income than blue states, during the economic recovery.
The data also show that blue states have generally become less free over the past decade, while red states have tended to gain additional levels of freedom. The states with the biggest declines in freedom were Wyoming, Illinois, New Jersey, New York and Kansas. Those with the biggest gains were Oklahoma, North Dakota, Idaho, Utah and New Mexico.
And contrary to conventional wisdom, the researchers found that conservative states are just as likely as liberal ones to score well on measures of personal freedom, which looked at laws covering marijuana use, gambling, marriage rights, alcohol and tobacco use, gun control, victimless crimes and the like.
"Personal freedom does not relate straightforwardly to the left-right spectrum at all," the study noted.