Aargau is by far the most liberal canton in this year’s ranking. The canton wins almost across the board, claiming first place in the social sub‑index and second place in the eco-nomic sub‑index. Well behind Aargau, but ahead of all other cantons, Appenzell Ausser-rhoden reaches the podium for the seventh consecutive time. Completing the top three, the canton of Schwyz takes third place.
Zug continues to excel as the canton offering the greatest economic freedoms yet ranks only 21st in social freedoms. The two largest cantons, Zurich and Bern, take 15th and 25th place, with Bern dropping four positions compared to last year. Jura and Vaud face the same situa-tion as Zug: they occupy top positions in social freedoms (2 and 4) but rank at the bottom for economic freedoms. In the overall ranking, Valais hands over the last place to Uri: no canton in Switzerland offers fewer freedoms overall than Uri. The biggest declines compared to last year are seen in St. Gallen (from 15 to 21), Vaud (from 11 to 17), and Appenzell In-nerrhoden (from 19 to 24). Lucerne (from 25 to 16) and Basel-Landschaft (from 22 to 14) make considerable jumps forward.
Short commentaries for each canton can be found here in German and here in French.
A wide divide between German-speaking and French-speaking cantons
Overall, the German‑speaking cantons score primarily in economic freedoms. In this sub‑index, Aargau and Schwyz join Zug on the podium. In contrast, the French-speaking cantons occupy the bottom seven places. The picture is reversed in the social‑freedom sub‑index: all exclusively French‑speaking cantons rank within the top, while many Ger-man‑speaking cantons appear in the lower half of the table.
Full transparency and data download
As in the previous year, all data is available in a publicly accessible Excel file in German and French. In addition to the index scores and rankings, the document also includes all values for the individual indicators. The Freedom Index is also fully interactive: each indicator can be individually activated or deactivated to create a personalized index.
