We mightn’t be quite as healthy as some other countries – see World’s healthiest countries (NZ ranked 18th) – but we are ranked top of a Freedom index.
Cato Institute: Human Freedom Index
Top ten:
Thee bottom countries were Iraq, Sudan, Yemen, Venezuela and Syria.
New Zealand was also ranked top of the 2018 index, up from 3rd in 2017 (3rd also in 2017, 5th in 2016).
The Human Freedom Index presents the state of human freedom in the world based on a broad measure that encompasses personal, civil, and economic freedom. Human freedom is a social concept that recognizes the dignity of individuals and is defined here as negative liberty or the absence of coercive constraint. Because freedom is inherently valuable and plays a role in human progress, it is worth measuring carefully. The Human Freedom Index is a resource that can help to more objectively observe relationships between freedom and other social and economic phenomena, as well as the ways in which the various dimensions of freedom interact with one another.
The report is co-published by the Cato Institute, the Fraser Institute, and the Liberales Institut at the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom.
The Human Freedom Index – 2019
The index published here presents a broad measure of human freedom, understood as the absence of coercive constraint. This fifth annual index uses 76 distinct indicators of personal and economic freedom in the following areas:
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Rule of Law
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Security and Safety
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Movement
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Religion
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Association, Assembly, and Civil Society
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Expression and Information
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Identity and Relationships
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Size of Government
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Legal System and Property Rights
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Access to Sound Money
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Freedom to Trade Internationally
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Regulation of Credit, Labor, and Business
Your NZ 
Alan Wilkinson
/ 24th January 2020Given the impact of our loss of property rights on housing affordability and the regulatory anchors causing abysmal productivity growth it is depressing if the rest of the world is really worse. But I suspect it isn’t.
Corky
/ 24th January 2020We are an over governed, over regulated and overpriced destination. If we are No1, climate change is the least of the worlds worry.
Blazer
/ 24th January 2020‘ the regulatory anchors causing abysmal productivity growth ‘=please explain…Al.
Alan Wilkinson
/ 24th January 2020Do it yourself, B.
Blazer
/ 24th January 2020usual empty vessel.
Alan Wilkinson
/ 24th January 2020.. and you’ll stay one.
David
/ 24th January 2020This is a nod to Ardern, without substance of course but because of who she is and the media attention she will generate for the survey…much like the adulation of Greta. Can anyone name a single thing that Arderns government has done that would justify a bump ?
Finland got a jump based on the millennial woke women who now run that country.
Alan Wilkinson
/ 24th January 2020I suppose you could say she allowed an Australian mass murderer to do his thing but I doubt that is the kind of human freedom we would want to boast about.
Blazer
/ 24th January 2020what vile ,disgraceful nonsense you peddle.
Alan Wilkinson
/ 24th January 2020Truth hurts, B?
duperez
/ 25th January 2020I suppose you could say she allowed an Australian mass murderer to do his thing.
It is the truth to say “you could say she allowed an Australian mass murderer to do his thing.”
The real truth about anyone saying she allowed an Australian mass murderer to do his thing though, is if they actually believe that. The truth then would be that they’re inextricably in the grip of political partisanship or they are extremely limited intellectual capacity. Or both.
Alan Wilkinson
/ 25th January 2020We have to be imaginative to answer David’s challenge, dup. There was one good thing her government did quite a while ago that might have enhanced human freedom but unfortunately I’ve forgotten what it was. I do recall praising it. So giving a mass murderer guns and taking them away from everyone else is the only standout for me. The rest is just talk.
Alan Wilkinson
/ 24th January 2020And rated least corrupt:
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12303119
However I fear this is achieved by grossly overpaying many of our bureaucrats and unproductive paper-pushers relative to other workers.
David
/ 24th January 2020Arderns coalition partners appear to have free reign to squash that particular metric.
Alan Wilkinson
/ 27th January 2020The Government is considering introducing hate speech legislation which is likely to make most exponents of it more virulent and dangerous along side inhibiting free speech and debate.
Alan Wilkinson
/ 27th January 2020Confirmation already. Jailing Philip Arps has made him worse:
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/119070115/white-supremacist-philip-arps-opposes-release-conditions
Corky
/ 27th January 2020”The condition regarding his employment was sought after Arps used his business, Beneficial Insulation, to charge $14.88 per metre for insulation last year – 14.88 is a hate symbol popular with white extremists.”
How sad is our justice system. These idiots need to realise people like Arps are the least of their worries. It’s people like multiple murderer Tarrant and Muslim nutters who are the problem. They do very little talking. They let their actions speak louder than their words.
Alan Wilkinson
/ 27th January 2020This is what a real freedom could look like. Of course anathema to Lefties who just want to control everyone’s life and property and for the government to manage every risk and choose and provide every solution:
https://croakingcassandra.com/2020/01/27/free-up-housing-by-shaking-up-politics/