It’s Official, Canada Ranked #1 Most Free Country In The World

Canada may not win a lot of international competitions, but when it comes to a sense of freedom within citizens, the nation beats the entire world. Most Canadians could have told you that already, but now we have some official data giving credence to our title as “the true north strong and free.”

According to the 2015 Legatum Prosperity Index, created by the Legatum Institute, an international think tank, Canada is “now the freest country in the world.” The findings were part of the report’s Personal Freedom sub-index, in which Canada jumped from the fifth to first place this year.

To give you some tangible numbers, 94% of Canadians believe “that they have the freedom to choose the course of their own lives,” though we only got 5th in the world for this specific section of the Personal Freedom sub-index.

Overall, Norway ranked number one in the 2015 Legatum Prosperity Index, largely because of the nation’s fantastic health care system. In comparison, Canada ranked sixth in the world, just behind Sweden, and way ahead of the United States, who only got 11th in the world.

Canada beat out America even more when it came to personal freedom. Like we’ve already told you, Canada ranked number one in the world for freedom, whereas the U.S. got the far-off 15th in the world spot.

Adding to the awesomeness that is Canada is our acceptance of newcomers, in which Canada also ranked number one in the world. Legatum found that 92% of Canadians believe the nation is “a good place for immigrants.”

But the nation’s acceptance of immigrants may not extend to Quebec, at least when it comes to religion. An unpublished report from the Quebec Human Rights Commission, as referenced by The Gazette, found that 43% of Quebecers who responded are suspicious of anyone who openly practices a religion. 48.9% openly stated they were “bothered” by a female attendee wearing a hijab.

Ouf, Quebec, you got some work to do, especially when the rest of Canada is apparently so tolerant and accepting