One more time!
For the sixth year in a row, New Hampshire has been named the best place in North America for economic freedom — and the many benefits that come with it.
The Economic Freedom of North America report, released by the Josiah Bartlett Center for Public Policy in conjunction with the Canada-based Fraser Institute, ranks New Hampshire as having the highest level of economic freedom in both the United States and North America.
“Granite Staters continue to choose policies that empower people, not government. When you do that for a very long time, you wind up freer than your neighbors,” said Andrew Cline, president of the Josiah Bartlett Center for Public Policy. “In 2025, legislators have a tremendous opportunity to build on this success and liberate Granite Staters from some of the outdated policies that keep us from being even freer.”
The report examines the policies of the 50 U.S. states and the territory of Puerto Rico, 32 Mexican states, and 10 Canadian provinces.
New Hampshire was at the top in the U.S., followed by South Dakota, Florida, Tennessee and Texas. No other New England state was in the top 25, and two — Rhode Island (#42) and Vermont (#46) — were near the bottom.
Gov. Chris Sununu, who is leaving office after eight years, was pleased to see the Granite State still at the top of the rankings.
“The model we’ve set here in New Hampshire isn’t just the gold standard for the 50 states, it’s the envy of all North America! The New Hampshire Advantage is more than just a slogan — it’s proof that freedom stems from creating opportunity for the individual without big government,” Sununu said.
During his four terms in office, Sununu has often touted New Hampshire’s place at the top of economic rankings, either for New England or the entire U.S. The Granite State has recently been named the state with the best ROI (Return on Investment) in the nation. And the nonpartisan Tax Foundation’s State Business Tax Climate Index ranked New Hampshire as having the best tax climate in New England and the sixth best in the U.S.
The Economic Freedom of North America report is co-authored by José Torra, the head of research at the Mexico City-based Caminos de la Libertad, and Ángel Carrión-Tavárez, director of research and policy at the Instituto de Libertad Económica in Puerto Rico. It is an offshoot of the Fraser Institute’s Economic Freedom of the World index, the result of more than a quarter century of work by more than 60 scholars, including three Nobel laureates.
“In the freest economies, individuals are allowed to make more of their own economic choices—choices concerning work, transactions with others, and owning and using productive property. As government limits these choices, people have less economic freedom and as a result they tend to be worse off,” said Matthew Mitchell, a senior fellow at the Fraser Institute and co-author of the report.
See the full report at https://efotw.org and fraserinstitute.org/studies/economic-freedom.
