Human Freedom Index 2019

Article Published on March 26, 2020

The 2019 Human Freedom Index report published by the Fraser Institute ranks Mauritius 1st in Sub Saharan Africa and 50th worldwide. A total of 162 countries participated.

The index measures the degree to which the policies and institutions of countries are supportive of human freedom, understood as the absence of coercive constraint. This fifth annual index uses 76 distinct indicators of personal and economic freedom in different areas such as Rule of Law, Security and Safety, Religion, Expression and Information and Freedom to Trade Internationally, amongst others.

In the Sub-Saharan Africa region, Mauritius topped the list (50th worldwide) and was followed by Cabo Verde (52nd worldwide) and Botswana (60th worldwide).

At the global level, the top five countries by ranking order were (1) New Zealand (2) Switzerland (3) Hong Kong (4) Canada (5) Australia.

The rankings of some other major countries are Germany (8) United Kingdom (14) United States (15) Japan (25) Italy (32) France (33) Mexico (82) India (94) Brazil (109) Russia (114) and China (126).

The 2019 Human Freedom Index report is available here