Analytics, EU – Baltic States, Latvia, Legislation, Society

The international study carried out by Swedish economic experts looked at the connection between economic freedom and racism, and examined the hypothesis that persons living in countries with higher levels of economic freedom are the least likely to express racist attitudes than countries where economic freedom is restricted.

The survey asked respondents in more than 80 different countries to identify people they would not want as neighbors. The more frequently that people in a given country say they do not want neighbors of other races, the economists reasoned, the less racially tolerant you could call that society.

According to the study, the most tolerant societies are English-speaking – Great Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, as well as South America.

In Europe, the most tolerant societies are Norway, Sweden, Iceland and Latvia, where less than 5% of respondents stated that they would not like to have neighbors from another race.

France is one of the least tolerant countries in Europe, according to the survey, while the least tolerant countries in the world included Bangladesh, Hong Kong, Jordan and India.

The study concluded that economic freedom had no correlation with racial tolerance, but it does appear to correlate with tolerance toward homosexuals.