How has New Mexico’s poor economic freedom ranking evolved over time?

The Rio Grande Foundation’s work is heavily-focused on economic freedom. You can find the full Economic Freedom of North America report for 2024 here. Below are two charts which illustrate New Mexico’s performance going back to 1981 on the various components of economic freedom: Government Spending, Taxation, and Regulation (along w/ an overall ranking). These are, of course, relative to other states so everything is graded on a curve.

New Mexico ranks 47th in 2024.

You can actually see how states evolve all the way back to 1981 here. New Mexico hasn’t always been as bad as it is now.