placestats

Civil liberties (FH) vs. Hours worked (PWT)

Holds up after adjusting for income

Across 127 countries, Civil liberties (FH) and Hours worked (PWT) rise and fall together at r = +0.57 (on a scale from −1 to +1, where 0 means no link). It holds up almost unchanged when only countries with similar income (GDP per person) are compared (r = +0.49, q = 0.013, allowing for the many pairs tested).

Comparing countries across the middle half of civil liberties (FH), 2 to 5 points, hours worked (PWT) is 282 hours per year higher at the top of that range than the bottom. Comparing only countries with similar national income, the gap is 271 hours per year.

Link before adjusting (r)+0.573p = 1.9e-12 · 127 countries
After adjusting for national income+0.489p = 6.2e-9 · likely range [+0.34, +0.61]
p, allowing for regions0.001standard error 0.072 · 7 regions
Check for luck (q)0.013across 18,622 pairs

How to read these.r runs from −1 (one goes up as the other goes down) to +1 (they rise together), and 0 means no link. Adjusting for national income means comparing countries with the same GDP per person, so differences in wealth can’t explain the link. Income is used in percentage terms, since an extra $1,000 means more to a poor country than to a rich one. p is how likely a link this strong would be if there were really none. Below 0.05 means it is unlikely to be chance. Very small values are written in short form: 1.1e-32 means a decimal point followed by 31 zeros and then 11, so very close to zero. The likely range is where the true figure probably lies, and a range that crosses zero means the link could easily be chance. Countries in the same region tend to resemble each other, so the third figure allows for that, which gives a fairer p. The standard error is the typical size of the error in r. Finally, testing this many pairs means some will look strong by luck alone. A q below 0.05 means this link is unlikely to be one of those.

Civil liberties (FH) · rating (1-7, 1 = most free)link with income -0.49 · moderate
Hours worked (PWT) · hours per yearlink with income -0.40 · moderate

“Link with income” is how closely each measure tracks GDP per person across countries, from −1 to +1.

Every country as a dot

Civil liberties (FH) · rating (1-7, 1 = most free) →Hours worked (PWT) · hours per year →171,3352,658Angola: 5 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 2,115 hours per yearAlbania: 3 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 2,152 hours per yearUnited Arab Emirates: 6 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 2,514 hours per yearArgentina: 2 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 1,612 hours per yearArmenia: 4 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 1,976 hours per yearAustralia: 1 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 1,611 hours per yearAustria: 1 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 1,438 hours per yearAzerbaijan: 7 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 1,791 hours per yearBelgium: 1 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 1,593 hours per yearBurkina Faso: 5 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 2,356 hours per yearBangladesh: 4 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 2,383 hours per yearBulgaria: 2 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 1,659 hours per yearBahrain: 6 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 2,052 hours per yearBosnia and Herzegovina: 3 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 2,122 hours per yearBelarus: 7 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 1,875 hours per yearBolivia: 3 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 1,968 hours per yearBrazil: 3 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 1,994 hours per yearBotswana: 2 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 2,258 hours per yearCanada: 1 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 1,731 hours per yearSwitzerland: 1 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 1,529 hours per yearChile: 1 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 1,950 hours per yearChina: 6 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 2,328 hours per yearCote d'Ivoire: 4 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 2,103 hours per yearCameroon: 6 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 2,181 hours per yearCongo, Dem. Rep.: 6 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 1,841 hours per yearCongo, Rep.: 6 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 2,534 hours per yearColombia: 3 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 2,471 hours per yearCosta Rica: 1 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 2,177 hours per yearCyprus: 2 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 1,840 hours per yearCzechia: 1 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 1,774 hours per yearGermany: 1 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 1,335 hours per yearDenmark: 1 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 1,380 hours per yearDominican Republic: 3 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 2,072 hours per yearAlgeria: 5 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 2,232 hours per yearEcuador: 3 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 1,594 hours per yearEgypt, Arab Rep.: 6 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 2,369 hours per yearSpain: 1 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 1,638 hours per yearEstonia: 1 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 1,606 hours per yearEthiopia: 6 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 1,599 hours per yearFinland: 1 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 1,497 hours per yearFrance: 2 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 1,487 hours per yearGabon: 5 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 2,174 hours per yearUnited Kingdom: 1 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 1,523 hours per yearGeorgia: 4 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 1,932 hours per yearGhana: 2 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 1,656 hours per yearGreece: 2 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 1,893 hours per yearGuatemala: 4 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 2,151 hours per yearHong Kong SAR, China: 4 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 2,240 hours per yearCroatia: 2 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 1,974 hours per yearHungary: 3 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 1,668 hours per yearIndonesia: 4 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 1,958 hours per yearIndia: 4 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 2,383 hours per yearIreland: 1 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 1,654 hours per yearIran, Islamic Rep.: 7 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 2,246 hours per yearIraq: 6 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 1,583 hours per yearIceland: 1 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 1,452 hours per yearIsrael: 3 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 1,890 hours per yearItaly: 2 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 1,701 hours per yearJamaica: 2 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 1,963 hours per yearJordan: 5 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 2,483 hours per yearJapan: 1 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 1,654 hours per yearKazakhstan: 5 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 1,975 hours per yearKenya: 4 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 2,035 hours per yearKyrgyz Republic: 5 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 1,830 hours per yearCambodia: 5 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 2,389 hours per yearKorea, Rep.: 2 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 1,910 hours per yearKuwait: 5 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 2,318 hours per yearLebanon: 4 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 2,412 hours per yearSri Lanka: 4 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 2,053 hours per yearLithuania: 2 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 1,640 hours per yearLuxembourg: 1 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 1,452 hours per yearLatvia: 2 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 1,625 hours per yearMorocco: 5 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 2,174 hours per yearMoldova: 3 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 1,989 hours per yearMadagascar: 4 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 1,799 hours per yearMexico: 4 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 1,629 hours per yearNorth Macedonia: 3 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 1,949 hours per yearMali: 5 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 2,243 hours per yearMalta: 1 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 1,848 hours per yearMyanmar: 7 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 2,197 hours per yearMozambique: 4 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 1,507 hours per yearMauritius: 2 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 1,990 hours per yearMalawi: 3 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 1,596 hours per yearMalaysia: 4 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 2,308 hours per yearNamibia: 2 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 2,184 hours per yearNiger: 5 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 2,069 hours per yearNigeria: 5 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 2,062 hours per yearNetherlands: 1 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 1,439 hours per yearNorway: 1 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 1,412 hours per yearNew Zealand: 1 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 1,708 hours per yearOman: 5 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 2,266 hours per yearPakistan: 5 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 2,471 hours per yearPeru: 3 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 2,143 hours per yearPhilippines: 4 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 2,096 hours per yearPoland: 2 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 1,807 hours per yearPortugal: 1 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 1,735 hours per yearParaguay: 3 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 2,123 hours per yearQatar: 5 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 2,435 hours per yearRomania: 2 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 1,826 hours per yearRussian Federation: 6 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 2,087 hours per yearRwanda: 6 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 1,584 hours per yearSaudi Arabia: 6 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 2,125 hours per yearSudan: 7 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 2,658 hours per yearSenegal: 3 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 2,335 hours per yearSingapore: 4 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 2,283 hours per yearSerbia: 3 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 1,995 hours per yearSlovak Republic: 1 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 1,621 hours per yearSlovenia: 1 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 1,588 hours per yearSweden: 1 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 1,432 hours per yearSyrian Arab Republic: 6 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 1,621 hours per yearChad: 6 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 1,585 hours per yearThailand: 5 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 2,177 hours per yearTajikistan: 7 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 2,134 hours per yearTurkmenistan: 7 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 2,179 hours per yearTrinidad and Tobago: 2 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 1,610 hours per yearTunisia: 4 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 2,288 hours per yearTurkiye: 6 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 1,747 hours per yearTanzania: 5 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 2,129 hours per yearUganda: 5 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 2,128 hours per yearUkraine: 4 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 2,045 hours per yearUruguay: 1 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 1,481 hours per yearUnited States: 2 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 1,789 hours per yearUzbekistan: 6 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 2,099 hours per yearViet Nam: 6 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 2,160 hours per yearSouth Africa: 2 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 2,181 hours per yearZambia: 4 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 2,200 hours per yearZimbabwe: 5 rating (1-7, 1 = most free), 2,311 hours per yearAREBWACOGCOLCRIDEUDNKIRQNORRWASDNTCD

best-fit line line after adjusting

Four ways to measure the link

MethodrpCountries
Standard (Pearson), not adjusted+0.5731.9e-12127
By rank (Spearman), not adjusted+0.5683.4e-12127
Standard (Pearson), adjusted for national income+0.4896.2e-9127
By rank (Spearman), adjusted for national income+0.4471.5e-7127

The rank version uses only each country’s place in line, from lowest to highest, so a few extreme countries count for less. The adjusted and unadjusted versions use the same 127 countries: those that report both measures and GDP per person. So the gap between them comes from the adjustment, not from a change in which countries are counted. Drop in the size of r after adjusting: +0.084 (a minus sign means it grew).

How solid is it?

Leaving out one country at a time, r ranges from +0.465 (without ARE) to +0.511 (without IRQ). The bar above shows that range on a scale from −1 to +1, with the solid line at the full result. The single country that moves r most: ARE (-0.024).

Within each region

Countries are not separate, unrelated cases, and neighbors share a lot. A link that holds inside each region is far more believable than one that shows up only when comparing regions.

nr
East Asia & Pacific14+0.86
Europe & Central Asia47+0.35
Latin America & Caribbean15+0.03
Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan & Pakistan18+0.16
Sub-Saharan Africa28+0.30

By income third

If the link shows up only in the richest third of countries, it is a feature of rich countries, not a general pattern.

nr
Poorest third43+0.15
Middle third42+0.29
Richest third42+0.84

By largest religious group

Countries grouped by a label they share, such as main religion, rather than by a number. Groups of fewer than twelve countries are not shown. These groups differ in income, region and history all at once. So a gap between them is a place to start asking questions, not an answer.

nr
Christians74+0.33
Muslims36-0.20

By last European coloniser

Countries grouped by a label they share, such as main religion, rather than by a number. Groups of fewer than twelve countries are not shown. These groups differ in income, region and history all at once. So a gap between them is a place to start asking questions, not an answer.

nr
France16-0.29
Never a European colony17+0.51
Spain14-0.02
United Kingdom35+0.60

By official ideology

Countries grouped by a label they share, such as main religion, rather than by a number. Groups of fewer than twelve countries are not shown. These groups differ in income, region and history all at once. So a gap between them is a place to start asking questions, not an answer.

nr
Nationalist21+0.17
No strong official ideology85+0.59

By party system

Countries grouped by a label they share, such as main religion, rather than by a number. Groups of fewer than twelve countries are not shown. These groups differ in income, region and history all at once. So a gap between them is a place to start asking questions, not an answer.

nr
A few parties banned18+0.21
No parties banned93+0.40

Without outliers (countries far outside the middle half of countries on either measure, by more than one and a half times the width of that middle half): r = +0.489 after dropping 0 countries.

Two series, one country

Both measures over the years for one country you pick. The two charts are stacked so they share only the years along the bottom.

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Over time, within countries

Everything above compares countries with each other at one moment. This section compares each country only with itself over 34years. So a link here can’t come from anything about a country that stays the same, such as its history, geography, institutions or culture.

Within countries over time, there is no link that is clearly more than chance (r = -0.015, comparing each country only with itself over the years, and each year only with the same year elsewhere). Whatever the cross-country picture shows, countries whose civil liberties (FH) moved did not tend to see their hours worked (PWT) move with it.

Across countries (adjusted)+0.489for comparison
Within countries+0.058each country vs itself
…and vs the same year elsewhere-0.015q = 0.878 · 130 countries
Year-on-year changes-0.005q = 0.916
Read with care.
  • Almost all of this indicator's variation is between countries, not within them, so the within-country estimate rests on a small part of the data.

3,432 country-years (one country in one year), 130 countries, 1990–2023, about 26 years each on average. Share of the variation that happens within countries over time: 7% for Civil liberties (FH), 7% for Hours worked (PWT). The margins of error allow for each country appearing many times, and for each year’s value being close to the year before.

Year-to-year changes are a cautious test, not a final answer. Looking only at changes from one year to the next removes each country’s own trends. But it also makes measurement mistakes louder, which pulls the results toward zero. A near-zero result here is weak evidence of no link, not proof.

With one measure years behind the other

0.10−0.1-100+10years Hours worked (PWT) trails Civil liberties (FH) →lag -10: r = -0.050 (n = 2,392)lag -9: r = -0.048 (n = 2,522)lag -8: r = -0.035 (n = 2,652)lag -7: r = -0.036 (n = 2,782)lag -6: r = -0.031 (n = 2,912)lag -5: r = -0.038 (n = 3,042)lag -4: r = -0.026 (n = 3,172)lag -3: r = -0.015 (n = 3,302)lag -2: r = -0.008 (n = 3,432)lag -1: r = -0.008 (n = 3,432)lag +0: r = -0.015 (n = 3,432)lag +1: r = -0.023 (n = 3,378)lag +2: r = -0.027 (n = 3,323)lag +3: r = -0.031 (n = 3,267)lag +4: r = -0.030 (n = 3,210)lag +5: r = -0.015 (n = 3,152)lag +6: r = -0.004 (n = 3,084)lag +7: r = 0.010 (n = 3,016)lag +8: r = 0.023 (n = 2,948)lag +9: r = 0.030 (n = 2,880)lag +10: r = 0.028 (n = 2,812)

Same year (lag 0): -0.015. A peak away from zero does not show which comes first. These series change slowly — this year’s value is close to last year’s. That makes the curve smooth and nearly symmetric, whatever produced the data. Even a sharp peak at one lag (a gap of some years) would not prove that one measure changes the other.

This curve peaks at the edge of the window (lag -10), so it is still drifting where the search stops. That pattern usually reflects a slow trend left over in the data, not a link with real timing. The peak value should not be read as the “true” link at the right lag.

The data


rating (1-7, 1 = most free)
hours per year		Years
Turkmenistan TKM72,1792025, 2023
Tajikistan TJK72,1342025, 2023
Sudan SDN72,6582025, 2023
Myanmar MMR72,1972025, 2023
Iran, Islamic Rep. IRN72,2462025, 2023
Belarus BLR71,8752025, 2023
Azerbaijan AZE71,7912025, 2023
Viet Nam VNM62,1602025, 2023
Uzbekistan UZB62,0992025, 2023
Turkiye TUR61,7472025, 2023
Chad TCD61,5852025, 2023
Syrian Arab Republic SYR61,6212025, 2023
Saudi Arabia SAU62,1252025, 2023
Rwanda RWA61,5842025, 2023
Russian Federation RUS62,0872025, 2023

Freedom House, Freedom in the World
Feenstra, Robert C., Robert Inklaar and Marcel P. Timmer (2015), "The Next Generation of the Penn World Table", American Economic Review, 105(10), 3150-3182, www.ggdc.net/pwt. Data: Penn World Table version 11.0, Groningen Growth and Development Centre, doi:10.34894/FABVLR.

Sources

Civil liberties (FH)

Civil liberties rating

Freedom House · via Our World in Data · Free to use with attribution · updated annual

Scored 1 to 7, where 1 is most free. Covers freedom of speech and belief, the right to form groups, the rule of law and personal freedom. The same expert review process produces the political rights rating, so the two are bound to match closely.

Hours worked (PWT)

Average annual hours worked per person engaged (Penn World Table)

Groningen Growth and Development Centre, University of Groningen · via DataverseNL · CC BY 4.0 · updated irregular (new versions every few years)

Hours actually worked in a year, averaged over everyone with a job, including the self-employed and part-timers. It measures the same thing as the OECD hours measure, and for countries in both the two mostly agree. This one is kept because it reaches much further: about 130 countries each year from 2010 to 2023, where the OECD series has 38 countries and stops in 2016. Before 2000 it covers mainly rich countries. No "better" direction is set.

How this was computed

Data used: most recent value in 2010-2025; values come from 2023–2025. To adjust for income, each measure is first predicted from GDP per person (in percentage terms, on a log scale) with a straight-line fit. Only what is left over is then compared. This is called a partial correlation. The line is drawn the standard way (ordinary least squares), which picks the line that comes closest to all the countries at once. The error margins allow for countries in the same region resembling each other, using 7 World Bank regions. The q-value corrects for testing all 18,622 pairs at once, using the Benjamini–Hochberg method. Underlying data last updated V-Dem v16; V-Party v2. How the country data works · explore Civil liberties (FH) and Hours worked (PWT)

This page shows that two measures go together. It does not show that Civil liberties (FH) changes Hours worked (PWT), or the reverse. These figures also describe countries, not individual people. See the ecological fallacy.

More links with Civil liberties (FH) or Hours worked (PWT)