CS Global Partners releases World Citizenship Report 2023

CS Global Partners launched the 2023 edition of the World Citizenship Report, titled “Freedom – The Shared Pursuit of Global Citizens”. This groundbreaking report investigates the value of citizenship through the lens of the global citizen, making it the first-ever report to be based on such a principle of its kind. The recent edition has ranked Denmark, Switzerland and Finland in the top three spots from over 188 countries.

The World Citizenship Report 2023 also features a World Citizenship Index (WCI) a comprehensive tool that ranks citizenships across various dimensions, including safety and security, quality of life, economic opportunity, global mobility, and financial freedom.

Download full World Citizenship Report here

According to the WCR report, Denmark has taken the top spot, pushing Switzerland down to second place. Denmark’s rise to the top can be attributed to its strong performance across all the five motivators considered in the report. While Finland, for the second year in a row, retained the third spot, showcasing its consistency in offering a high quality of life, economic opportunities, and financial freedom to its citizens.

The report utilized a unique, holistic approach by examining the concept of citizenship from the perspective of global citizens and delves into the role of freedom in promoting a shared pursuit of citizenship across the world. The rankings are based on five key motivators and a thorough survey of global citizens.

Download full World Citizenship Report here

“In the 2023 edition of the WCR, we took a unique look at the needs of global citizens, because one’s nationality and the rights enjoyed and the responsibilities required, should be considered from a personal perspective,” Micha-Rose Emmett, co-founder and CEO of CS Global Partners – The World’s Leader in Citizenship by Investment Solutions.

As per CEO Micha Emmett, the World Citizenship Report aims to capture the concerns of a global citizen. While discussing the findings, she added that the top ten countries in the WCR 2022 and WCR 2023 are remarkably similar with some movement up and down. She added that Switzerland ranked number one in 2022, but fell to the second spot in 2023, with Denmark usurping the first spot in 2023.

“The Republic of Korea experienced the biggest drop, in 2022 it ranked at number 28, falling 20 spots to number 48 in 2023. The biggest climber was Sao Tome and Principe, which ranked at number 106 in 2022, climbing 27 spots to 79 in 2023,”.

She added that the World Citizenship Report discovered that the Caribbean nations that offer citizenship by investment programmes maintained their positions in the top 30 per cent in 2023. “This can be attributed to their political, economic and societal stability. Countries like Dominica, St Kitts and Nevis, and Saint Lucia all offer some of the world’s best citizenship programmes and are serious trailblazers in the investment immigration industry,”

Download full World Citizenship Report here

The WCR emphasized that in the post-pandemic world, safety and security remain a top priority for the average mass affluent global citizen. The report found that, when thinking about travelling more freely by virtue of second citizenship, travel for leisure (31 per cent) was cited as the most important aspect of travel freedom, ahead of travel for business reasons (23 per cent) or for safety and security (22 per cent).

The findings of the World Citizenship Report 2023 are based on the following five key motivators:

Safety and Security: This factor analysed the ability to enjoy greater social safety and security of an individual and their family. It also scrutinized the safety net against being trapped in a territory with civil disorder. While Iceland secured the top position with 95.8 scores, New Zealand secure the second position with 95.1 scores followed by Switzerland with a score of 93.1. Denmark succeeded in securing the fourth position with an overall score of 92.2.

Economic Opportunity: This motivator analysed the greater access to improved business environments and employment opportunities that allow individuals to participate in the economy while achieving their goals of securing their financial futures and raising the standard of living for themselves and their families.  It ranked Singapore on top, followed by the United States of America, and Hong Kong (SAR China) among others. In this motivator, Switzerland secured fifth position, Denmark seventh and Finland eightieth

Quality of Life:  This year’s rankings reveal that Monaco has secured the top spot, scoring an impressive score of  90.9 out of 100. Denmark comes in at a close second with a score of 90.6, followed closely by Hong Kong (SAR China) with 90.4. Finland and Sweden round up the top five, with scores of 89.6 and 89.2, respectively. Again in this motivator, Switzerland secured the seventh position with a score of 88.6

Global Mobility Motivator:  WCR added that the ability to travel freely between different jurisdictions is fundamental to the idea of global citizenship, as it is the one element without which its other benefits cannot be realised. Japan topped this motivator followed by Singapore, Germany, Spain and Finland. Denmark secured fifth position while Switzerland stood seventh.

Financial Freedom Motivator:  It measured the ability of a country to provide a favourable and stable regulatory climate for the establishment and functioning of businesses. In this motivator, Denmark topped the charts with an overall score of 84, followed by New Zealand with a score of 83.8, Singapore with 83.7, Switzerland with 83.1 and Finland with a score of 82.7.

The World Citizenship Report also featured the World Citizenship Index- which goes beyond traditional notions of citizenship to capture the essence of what it means to be a global citizen. CS Global Partners says that the World Citizenship Index uses a research-driven approach that places greater emphasis on diverse attitudes towards key facets of citizenship. Developed to reflect the values of high-net-worth-individuals (HNWIs) and the mass affluent population.

The WCI has been derived using a unique methodology, as per CS Global Partners it is a product of comprehensive qualitative and quantitative research to evaluate 188 nationalities across five motivators of citizenship according to their value to HNWIss across the globe.

“The World Citizenship Index’s unique methodology relies on the experience gained through our unparalleled work in the citizenship solutions industry, as well as comprehensive research to evaluate 188 jurisdictions across the five motivators of citizenship out of a maximum attainable score of 100 points,” added CS Global Partners.

Notably the WCR report also includes valuable contributions from individuals such as Andrew Skipper, founder of Polymetis Professional Solutions. He is a leading legal and business advisor with more than 35 years of experience. London-based tech COO Alan Newton also contributed to the report by discussing the methods of “dissolving the location barrier and technology’s impact on work/lifestyle.