According to the Human Freedom Index 2022, compiled by the Cato Institute, an American libertarian think tank, the UAE ranked 153 worldwide in terms of personal freedom.

The new decline makes the Gulf country very close to being among the worst 10 countries in the world in terms of personal freedoms.

According to Cato, the Human Freedom Index presents a broad measure of human freedom, understood as the absence of coercive constraint. 

“This eighth annual index uses 83 distinct indicators of personal and economic freedom in the following areas: rule of law; security and safety; movement; religion; association, assembly and civil society; expression and information; relationships; size of government; legal system and property rights; sound money; freedom to trade internationally; regulation.”

Estonia is scoring very high in the Cato Institute’s Human Freedom Index 2022 – that covers 165 jurisdictions for 2020, the most recent year for which sufficient data are available – in every category. Its personal freedom score is 9.28 out of 10; its economic freedom score is 7.95 out of 10; and its human freedom score is 8.73 out of 10. All in all, Estonia has moved up two places compared with the previous index, compiled for the years 2019-2020.

The countries considered freer than Estonia are Switzerland and New Zealand in the Human Freedom Index 2022. The countries coming after Estonia are Denmark, Ireland, Sweden, Iceland, Finland, the Netherlands and Luxembourg.