A study by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University ranked Missouri 5th out of 50 states in freedom.  This study comprehensively ranks the American states on their public policies that affect individual freedoms in the economic, social, and personal spheres. It updates, expands, and improves upon the Center’s  inaugural 2009 Freedom in the 50 States study.

For this new edition, they have added more policy variables (such as bans on trans fats and the audio recording of police, Massachusetts’s individual health-insurance mandate, and mandated family leave), improved existing measures (such as those for fiscal policies, workers’ compensation regulations, and asset-forfeiture rules), and developed specific policy prescriptions for each of the 50 states based on our data and a survey of state policy experts.

With a consistent time series, they are also able to discover for the first time which states have improved and worsened in regard to freedom recently. Missouri improved four spaces from its previous number nine ranking.

New Hampshire ranked 1st, South Dakota 2nd, Indiana 3rd, Idaho 4th, and Missouri 5th.  Coming in last was New York.

Check out the full study here: http://mercatus.org/freedom-50-states-2011