Granite Staters have been celebrating another number one. No, it’s not the lowest tax burden, the safest state, or the lowest poverty level, though it consistently ranks best (or one of the best) for those. It is economic freedom, and New Hampshire is number one again—not just in the US but in all of North America.
Since the Fraser Institute began publishing its Economic Freedom of North America Index two decades ago, the Granite State has ranked No. 1 in 23 of the 26 years studied in the international freedom index. It has ranked No. 1 in 23 of the 42 years covered in the U.S. freedom index.
New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu said that notching another first place win shows that New Hampshire’s approach to governing works.
“The model we’ve set here in New Hampshire isn’t just the gold standard for the 50 states, it’s the envy of all North America! The New Hampshire Advantage is more than just a slogan — it’s proof that freedom stems from creating opportunity for the individual without big government,” Sununu said.
New Hampshire is the only Republican-majority state in the Northeast, and while neighboring states have flirted with moderate Republican governors, the proof is in the economic freedom pudding.
Among the remaining New England states, Massachusetts ranked 28th, Connecticut 29th, Maine 38th, Rhode Island 42nd, and Vermont 46th, making New Hampshire at No. 1 the only New England state to rank in the top half of states for economic freedom.
I like to pick on Vermont because it is the best (real-time) example of predictable Democratic decline. It is the most similar to New Hampshire. These small states have small populations (Vermont’s is about half of New Hampshire’s) and similar cultural starting points and demographics. But when Vermont went left at the state level, New Hampshire stayed right (or, at least, mostly center right). The granite state consistently embraced a Live Free or Die motto (with a few hiccups), while Vermont took the path to bigger government.
The Green Mountain state added taxes and regulations, and voted increasingly for Democrats, and you can see the results. Cultural rot. Bloated budgets. Higher taxes. Rising crime, poverty, declining public health outcomes, and one of the worst economic freedom ratings in the nation.
It is a beautiful state with a fantastic history. My favorite president, Calvin Coolidge, called it home. And while the 2024 elections gave the people a glimmer of hope when they deprived the Democrats of their veto-proof majority, the best Vermonters can hope for is for things not to get exponentially worse. What is in motion will remain, while positive change will prove nearly impossible.
The people who hate economic freedom are still in the elected majority. Progressive thinkers dominate the state’s largest towns and cities. It isn’t even really a stalemate, but it is a step in the proper direction. Vermonters need to take the next step in local elections and in 2026 when they can take back a little bit more, with the understanding that when they take away a Democrat, they give themselves back a chance at more freedom and opportunity.
We can’t export it, and not just because Vermonters are fleeing to New Hampshire and dragging some of that liberal poison with them. It is a struggle to keep them from turning us into you. But we should not need to do anything but set an example. New Hampshire has low taxes, high standards of living, low poverty, and low crime, and while there are other problems (family court and DCYF come to mind), this path offers the best opportunity for economic liberty, which is what the nation was founded on.
Being 46th for economic freedom is only flattering if the goal is to be more like the states with less of it than Vermont—like New York or California—which Vermont Democrats want to emulate.
And so they have.
