What Is the Nolan Chart?
The Nolan Chart is a two-dimensional political diagram that maps political beliefs along two axes: economic freedom and personal freedom. Unlike the traditional left-right spectrum, which forces all political views onto a single line, the Nolan Chart reveals the full range of political philosophies by measuring how much freedom a person supports in both their personal life and economic affairs.
The chart was created by David Nolan in 1969. Nolan, a political scientist and co-founder of the Libertarian Party, recognized that the conventional left-right model failed to capture the real diversity of political thought. His insight was simple but revolutionary: political beliefs have two dimensions, not one.
Explore the Chart
The Nolan Chart plots political positions on two axes:
- Economic Freedom (X-axis): How much government control a person supports over economic activity — taxation, trade, regulation, property rights, and business.
- Personal Freedom (Y-axis): How much government control a person supports over personal choices — speech, religion, relationships, lifestyle, and civil liberties.
By measuring both dimensions, the chart creates a diamond-shaped map with five distinct political regions, each representing a coherent political philosophy.
Hover any sector to preview, click to read about that political type.
Hover a sector to preview how it fills — tap to lock it in.
The Five Political Types
Libertarian
Libertarians support a high degree of both personal and economic freedom. They believe individuals should be free to make their own choices in all areas of life, as long as they don't infringe on the equal rights of others. Libertarians favor minimal government intervention in both the marketplace and personal affairs.
Conservative
Conservatives tend to favor economic freedom — lower taxes, less regulation, free markets — but support more government involvement in personal matters such as moral standards, traditional values, and national security. They occupy the right side of the chart.
Progressive
Progressives (sometimes called liberals) tend to favor personal freedom — civil liberties, free expression, and social tolerance — but support more government control over economic activity through regulation, redistribution, and social programs. They occupy the left side of the chart.
Authoritarian
Authoritarians favor significant government control over both personal and economic matters. They believe the state should play a central role in directing both the economy and personal behavior. This region is at the bottom of the chart.
Centrist / Moderate
Centrists hold a mixture of views, supporting some government intervention in both personal and economic areas while also favoring some degree of freedom in both. They fall near the center of the chart.
How a Quiz Score Becomes a Point on the Chart
Each Quiz taker ends up with two scores: a personal-freedom score and an economic-freedom score, each from 0 to 100. Those two numbers are coordinates on the chart.
The chart is rotated 45 degrees from a standard XY graph. That rotation makes it easier to see where you land relative to the five political types: instead of squinting at a corner of a square, you see your position on a diamond with a clear top, bottom, left, and right.
The result is a single point that captures the full shape of your political views in a way no left-right line can. Two people with the same "centrist" label on a one-axis test might land in very different corners of the Nolan Chart.
Position formula
x = 540 + (E − P) × 4y = 850 − (E + P) × 4Where
E = Economic freedom (0–100)P = Personal freedom (0–100)Worked example
E = 80, P = 75x = 540 + (80 − 75) × 4 = 560y = 850 − (80 + 75) × 4 = 230 → That point sits in the Libertarian sector (top of chart).The History of the Nolan Chart
David Nolan first conceived the chart in 1969 while working on his ideas about political philosophy. He published it in 1971 in an article for The Individualist, a publication of the Society for Individual Liberty. Nolan went on to co-found the Libertarian Party in 1971, where the chart became an important educational tool.
In 1987, Marshall Fritz, the founder of the Advocates for Self-Government, built upon Nolan's chart by adding ten carefully crafted questions — five about personal freedom and five about economic freedom. This became the World's Smallest Political Quiz, which has since been taken by over 29 million people online.
The Nolan Chart's two-axis model has influenced many subsequent political mapping tools and has been recognized by academics and political commentators as a more accurate representation of political ideology than the traditional left-right spectrum.
The Nolan Chart and the World's Smallest Political Quiz
The World's Smallest Political Quiz uses the Nolan Chart as its scoring framework. When you take the Quiz, your answers to five personal freedom questions determine your position on the Y-axis, and your answers to five economic freedom questions determine your position on the X-axis. Your combined score places you in one of the five regions of the Nolan Chart, revealing your political type.
This approach gives you a far more nuanced understanding of your political identity than any simple "left or right" label ever could. It helps explain why so many people feel that neither major party fully represents them — because their beliefs span multiple dimensions that a one-dimensional spectrum cannot capture.
Discover Where You Stand
Find your own point on the chart.
The World's Smallest Political Quiz takes under two minutes and plots your result on the same chart you've been exploring.
Curious how the chart looks with real leaders on it? See where every US president lands →
Want to learn more about each political type? Explore the detailed profiles: