The Freest States For Off-Grid Living, Ranked 1-50

WASHINGTON — New Yorkers enjoy the least freedom in America, while New Hampshire citizens enjoy the most, according to a new report, Freedom in the 50 States, that examines the best states in which to live.

The report by the Cato Institute examines everything from tax laws to gun laws to government regulation to education freedom and found that the five freest states are:

New Hampshire
Alaska
Oklahoma
Indiana
South Dakota

The five states with the least freedom are:

Maryland
New Jersey
Hawaii
California
New York

Although the report was not aimed solely at homesteaders and off-gridders, its emphasis on economic and personal freedom makes it invaluable for those who enjoy a rural life, free of government regulation.

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“New York is again the least free state in the country,” survey authors William Ruger and Jason Sorens wrote, noting that New York was dead last in 2015.

The reasons why the Empire State came in No. 50 in the freedom survey include:

A local tax burden twice that of the average state.
Local taxes consuming 7.8 percent of the average New Yorker’s income.
The nation’s strictest gun control laws.
Laws that make it perhaps the worst state for homeschooling.

Not surprisingly, a large percentage of New Yorkers are leaving the state, and it has an annual migration rate of -11.2 percent.

New Hampshire is ranked first because it combines “relatively high scores on both personal and economic freedom,” the authors noted.

Some of the reasons why New Hampshire ranked so high include:

State taxes as a share of personal income at 2.8 percent.
Local taxes as a share of income at 4.8 percent.
One of the best states for gun rights; there are almost no restrictions on concealed and open carry.

Ruger and Soren calculated freedom in each state using more than 230 variables. Some of these included land-use regulations, insurance requirements, licensing, gun rights and asset forfeiture. Cato is a libertarian think tank.

These rankings were divided into three broad categories: regulatory policy, personal freedom and fiscal policy. Regulatory policy is a measure of how much freedom businesses have in a state, personal freedom is a ranking of individual liberty, and fiscal policy is a measure of the level of taxes and government spending.

The study found that personal liberty and economic freedom do not always go together.

“Texas is one of the economically freest and personally least free states in the country,” the survey authors said.

The authors also discovered a correlation between the number of people leaving a state and economic freedom. Between the last survey in 2012 and this year’s survey, California had a net migration rate of -4.9 percent – meaning nearly 5 percent of the population left the state. During the same period, Texas had a net migration rate of +6.7 percent.

Following is Cato’s complete list: