Taiwan is the freest country in Asia, according to the 2022 Human Freedom Index (HFI).
The index, co-published by the Cato Institute and Fraser Institue, ranked the self-governing, democratic East Asian island 14th out of 165 jurisdictions worldwide by using 83 freedom indicators in the following areas: rule of law, security and safety, movement, religion, association and assembly, expression and information, relationships, size of government, legal system and property rights, sound money, freedom to trade internationally, and regulation.
On a scale of 1-10, the index gave Taiwan a score of 9.9 on religion, 9.5 on security and safety, 9.4 on relationships and 9.4 on association, assembly and civil society.
The nation received a perfect score of 10 for freedom of assembly, same-sex relationships, the freedom to “divorce,” the absence of “female genital mutilation,” the absence of “direct attacks on the press” and the freedom to own foreign currency.
However, Taiwan performed the worst in the freedom to trade internationally category, with a score of 6.3, due to trade barriers and black-market exchange rates.
Taiwan also faced challenges in the legal system and property rights, with a score of 6.3 in the enforcement of legal contracts, 6.4 in shortage of impartial courts and 6.5 in insufficient judicial independence.
It was also noted that Taiwan needs improvement in the area of the size of the government and the legal system and property rights.
Japan, which ranked 2nd freest in Asia, is placed 16th in the global ranking, while South Korea (third in Asian) is placed at 30th in the world.
The 2022 Human Freedom Index (HFI), which covered 98.1% of the global population, highlighted the discrepancy in freedom distribution, noting that only 13.4% of the population lives in the top quartile of jurisdictions while 39.9% lives in the bottom quartile.
The top 10 countries identified in the index to have the highest levels of freedom were Switzerland,…
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