Americans, Especially Women, Feel Less Free. They’re Not Wrong.
People around the world are, by and large, satisfied with the freedom they enjoy in their everyday lives. The exceptions to this trend are Americans—women, in particular. This could be the set-up for commentary from Euro-pundits and U.N. officials about American political dysfunction or the evils of our culture except for an important complication: By the reckoning of several independent organizations, the world is getting less free, and folks here at home are closer to the truth than are our overseas cousins.
Americans Are Outliers in Feeling Dissatisfied With Their Freedom
“For the third year in a row, Americans are less satisfied with their personal freedom than the rest of the world, including their peers in other wealthy, market-based economies,” Gallup’s Benedict Vigers and Julie Ray reported of survey data on May 14. “While Americans have been less satisfied in recent years, satisfaction with personal freedom has remained higher and steady worldwide. A median of 81% across 142 countries and territories expressed satisfaction with their freedom in 2024.”
Specifically, Americans’ satisfaction “with their freedom to choose what they do with their lives” started falling after 2020, when it was 85 percent; this was comparable to the peak 87-percent median recorded in the 38 developed, democratic countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and a bit higher than the 80-percent median recorded globally. U.S. satisfaction peaked several times over the past two decades at 87 percent, making 2020 unremarkable.
As of 2024, after a brief and mild pandemic-era dip, OECD residents’ satisfaction with their freedom stands at 86 percent and the global median is at 81 percent. Satisfaction with freedom among Americans, by contrast, has plunged to 72 percent.
Americans are rather less satisfied than their peers around the world with the freedom they enjoy in their lives. As it turns out, folks in the U.S. have a better handle on the real-world situation.
Freedom Really Is Declining
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Article from Reason.com
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