STA, 10 December 2018 - Slovenia dropped two spots to number 35 in the Human Freedom Index, compiled by US libertarian think-tank the Cato Institute. New Zealand tops the ranking based on 2016 statistics, followed by Switzerland, Hong Kong, Australia and Canada. Iraq, Venezuela, and Syria fared the worst among the 162 countries included in the survey.
The Ljubljana-based Visio Institute, whose head Tanja Porčnik co-authored the index, said that the ranking is based on data collected by national statistics offices. Because some data only become available up to two years later, the index is based on statistics from 2016.
The webpage for the report can be found here
https://www.cato.org/human-freedom-index-new
Placing between Italy in place 34 and Slovakia in 36, Slovenia fared best in the categories of movement, association and civil society, security and safety and access to sound money. It fared poorest in size of government, legal system and property rights and the rule of law.
The global human freedom index has been sliding for years, dropping from 6.93 to 6.89 in the past year. Porčnik blames this above all on nationalism, populism and authoritarianism.
She believes that Turkey and Poland contributed the most to the slide seen in the past year, as the countries evidently suffocated the rule of law and suppressed the freedom of speech.
Among regions, North America ranks highest, followed by west Europe and Oceania. South Asia, the Middle East and north Africa fared poorest.
East Europe remained level in place five among global regions despite a drop in its index. Among the countries in the region, Ukraine's index improved the most, while Slovenia was among the countries where it dropped the most: Hungary, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Poland.
Porčnik believes the indexes of these countries dropped due to a weak rule of law and high detected corruption.
