Georgia’s Diverging Trajectories of Freedom and Prosperity
The Atlantic Council’s 2026 Freedom and Prosperity Indexes reveal a widening mismatch in Georgia’s development. In 2025, the country scored 66.6 in freedom, ranking 73rd among 171 states, while its prosperity score reached 78.2, placing it 43rd. Georgia therefore stands 30 positions higher in prosperity than in freedom. The gap is not evidence that prosperity is independent of institutions; rather, it suggests that current social and economic outcomes still benefit from reforms, human capital, infrastructure, and international integration accumulated over previous decades.
The central concern is the direction of change. Georgia’s freedom score rose for much of the period from 1995 to 2018 and peaked at 76. By 2025, it had fallen by 9.4 points, or roughly 12.4 percent. The decline is concentrated in the rule of law, judicial independence and effectiveness, property rights, legislative constraints on the executive, and the predictability of laws. Prosperity has continued to improve, but its indicators—income, education, health, infrastructure, and life expectancy—typically respond to institutional deterioration with a delay.