Four governors were awarded an “A” in this report card—Sam Brownback of Kansas, Rick Scott of Florida, Paul LePage of Maine, and Tom Corbett of Pennsylvania.

  1. Wyoming
  2. South Dakota
  3. Nevada
  4. Alaska
  5. Florida
  6. Washington
  7. New Hampshire
  8. Montana
  9. Texas
  10. Utah

Mercatus’s Freedom in the Fifty States index has the following states are the most free:

  1. New Hampshire
  2. South Dakota
  3. Indiana
  4. Idaho
  5. Missouri
  6. Nevada
  7. Colorado
  8. Oregon
  9. Virginia
  10. North Dakota

Five governors were awarded an “F”—Pat Quinn of Illinois, Dan Malloy of Connecticut, Mark Dayton of Minnesota, Neil Abercrombie of Hawaii, and Chris Gregoire of Washington.

The 10 lowest ranked, or worst, states in this year’s Index are:

  1. Maryland
  2. Iowa
  3. Wisconsin
  4. North Carolina
  5. Minnesota
  6. Rhode Island
  7. Vermont
  8. California
  9. New Jersey
  10. New York

The least free states on the Mercatus ranking are:

Illinois

Ohio

Maryland

Alaska

Rhode Island 46. Massachusetts 47. Hawaii 48. California 49. New Jersey 50. New York