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expected. The top jurisdictions in the HumanFreedom Index for 2012 are Hong Kong, Switzerland,Finland, and Denmark. The bottomthree countries are Myanmar, the DemocraticRepublic of Congo, and Iran in descending order.Other selected countries rank in the followingways: Canada (6); United Kingdom (9);Netherlands (14); Chile (18); United States (20);Japan (28); Singapore (43); South Africa (70); India(75); Brazil (82); Mexico (100); Russia (111);and China (132).The nonweighted average rating of the HumanFreedom Index decreased slightly from2008 to 2012 (it was 7.01 in 2008 and 6.96 in2012), though those ratings are not strictlycomparable since the index surveys elevenmore countries in 2012 than in 2008. Some 69countries increased their overall freedom ratingsfrom 2008 to 2012, while 68 countries decreasedtheir freedom.The correlation between the personal andeconomic freedom ratings was 0.55 for 2012(see Figure 1). 19 Thus some countries thatranked high on the economic freedom indexsaw their positions fall significantly on the HumanFreedom Index. For example, Singaporeranked in second place in economic freedom in2012, but ranked 43rd on the HFI; the UnitedArab Emirates ranked 6 in economic freedombut 117 in human freedom; and Qatar ranked 15in economic freedom but 114 in human freedom.By contrast, some countries ranked consistentlyhigh in the human freedom sub-indices,including two countries ranked in the top10 in both personal and economic freedom:Switzerland and Finland.Among the categories that make up thepersonal freedom index, “association, assembly,and civil society” and “relationship freedoms”saw the biggest increases in their ratingsfrom 2008 to 2012, while the “rule of law”and “movement” saw the largest decreases(see Figure 2). 20 Given that the time periodstudied here is relatively short, it is not sur-19“Belongingto thefreestcountries inthe worldgreatlyimprovesthe averageperson’sincome.”Figure 2Freedom Index Category Averages, 2008–201292008 20128765432Rule of LawSecurity & SafetyMovementReligionAssociation, Assembly& Civil SocietyExpression &InformationRelationships

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