13 May 2021

The 2021 edition of the Nanny State Index, which has been expanded to 30 countries in Europe, shows that Germany has taken the top spot as the freest country.

A new addition to the Index, Norway, is currently the least free country in Europe when it comes to sin taxes and regulation of alcohol, tobacco, food, and vaping. Lithuania and Finland have taken the second and third place respectively in this year’s Index.

The Nanny State Index has been tracking lifestyle regulation across the EU since 2016. The latest edition of the Index has seen an increasing trend of taxation on sugary drinks, with twelve countries now having such taxes, up from five in 2017. More taxes have been levied on e-cigarette fluids, going from eleven countries in 2019 to thirteen in 2021. Meanwhile, seventeen of the thirty countries in the index have made it illegal to use an e-cigarette wherever smoking is prohibited, and sixteen countries have a total or near-total ban on e-cigarette advertising.