About the Center

The Freedom and Prosperity Center aims to increase the well-being of people everywhere and especially that of the poor and marginalized in developing countries through unbiased, data-based research on the relationship between prosperity and economic, political, and legal freedoms, in support of sound policy choices.

The Center analyzes some of the defining questions of our time and of all time. Do countries need freedom to achieve prosperity? Do democracies or autocracies have the better answers to the aspirations of the peoples of the world? What about countries that are not electoral democracies in the Western sense, but have high levels of economic and legal freedoms and leaders who appear to enjoy a high level of legitimacy among their citizens?

Central to answering these questions are the Freedom and Prosperity Indexes. The indexes measure the freedom and prosperity, respectively, of nearly every country in the world.

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Interactive Indexes Website

The indexes rank 164 countries around the world according to their levels of freedom and prosperity. Use our award-winning site to explore 28 years of data, compare countries and regions, and examine the sub-indexes and indicators that comprise our indexes.

FEATURED RESEARCH

2024 Atlas: Freedom and Prosperity Around the World

Twenty leading economists and government officials from eighteen countries contributed to this comprehensive volume, which serves as a roadmap for navigating the complexities of contemporary governance. 

2023: The Freedom and Prosperity Equation

Thirty scholars and political leaders from twelve countries have contributed seventeen essays to this volume. They make the case that durable prosperity is achieved in countries with economic, political, and legal freedom.

ANNUAL REPORT

The 2023 Freedom and Prosperity Indexes measure the distribution of freedom and prosperity in 164 countries. The report explores the relationship between the two and identifies global and regional trends over the last twenty-eight years.

False Promises: The authoritarian development models of Russia and China

Are authoritarian regimes more successful than free countries in offering prosperity to their people? The answer is decidedly no, yet China and Russia advertise the “benefits” and “promise” of their development models. This paper showcases why and how the authoritarian development model is inferior to that of free societies.

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Featured Media

Dive into the global evolution of women’s economic freedom, one of the indicators in the Freedom Index. The Center celebrates International Women’s Day by exploring the strides made and the work that lies ahead. Nina Dannaoui breaks down how women’s economic freedom has changed around the world since the 1990s.
The second annual Freedom and Prosperity Research Conference featured showcases from scholars and partners around the globe. Alejandra López de Alba Gómez of the Mexican Council on Foreign Relations discusses how her organization recreated the Prosperity Index for Mexican states and broke down the key takeaways from their findings.
At the second annual Freedom and Prosperity Research Conference, Kelley E. Currie, Johanna Kao, Kotaro Shiojiri, and Kimberly A. Reed convened for a panel discussion on freedom and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific. The panel focused on freedom-based development models and building partnerships among countries in the region.

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