In Ranking of Best Citizenships in the World, the Philippines Has a Lot of Catching Up to Do

The Philippines is in the bottom half of this year’s World Citizenship Report global rankings, indicating how much the country needs to work on in several factors deemed important by global citizens. 

The WCR is a global study that seeks to examine factors that drive high net worth individuals (HNWI) across the world to consider citizenship by investment. What makes the report unique is that, instead of just basing citizenship solely on visa-free travel, it looks at other “motivators” that HNWIs hold in high regard. Each motivator is assigned a weight and each country’s score per motivator is added to calculate its place in the overall rankings. The motivators are Safety and Security (25 percent), Economic Opportunity (20 percent), Quality of Life (25 percent), Global Mobility (15 percent), and Financial Freedom (15 percent).

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Out of 188 countries and territories, the Philippines is ranked 98th with a score of 50.2. We’re just behind Honduras and Cuba, ranked 96th and 97th with scores of 51.6 and 51.4 respectively, and slightly ahead of countries like Bolivia, Nicaragua, Rwanda, Gabon, and Azerbaijan, all of which ranked from 99th to 100th place.

Drilling down to the country’s score per motivator, the Philippines ranked highest in Economic Opportunity at 55th place with a score of 61.9 tied with Croatia. According to the WCR, the Economic Opportunity motivator “measures the overall ability of a nation to extend wealth, material comfort, and other key benefits of a strong economy to all of its citizens.”

Topping this list is our ASEAN neighbor Singapore, with a score of 84.8. The city-state is ahead of countries like the USA, Hong Kong, the Netherlands, and Japan, which comprise the top five.

In Safety and Security, the country is ranked 127th, tied with the nation of Comoros, with a score of 46.7.  This motivator “measures the extent to which second citizenship can offer greater safety and security to the citizen.”

Iceland is number one in this category, with a score of 95.8, followed by New Zealand, Switzerland, Denmark, and Norway.

For Quality of Life, which is arguably the most universally sought-after attribute of citizenship as it measure the ability of a nation-state to provide its citizens with the essential services for a good standard of living, the Philippines is at 111th place with a score of 59.7.

The tiny territory of Monaco claimed the top spot in this motivator with a score of 90.9. Others in the top five are Denmark, Hong Kong, Finland, and Sweden.

In the category of Global Mobility, which basically measures the ability to travel freely between different jurisdictions, the Philippines ranked 91st (tied with Uganda) with a score of 27.8. Ranking first in this motivator is Japan, with a score of 88.9, followed by Singapore, Germany and Spain (tied at third), and Finland, Italy and Luxembourg (all tied at fourth place).

Finally, for Financial Freedom, which “measures the ability of a country to provide a favorable and stable regulatory climate for the establishment and functioning of businesses, as well as the holding of personal and business assets,” the Philippines is at 90th place (tied with Tunisia) with a score of 47.1. In this metric, the top rank went to Denmark, with a score of 84.0, followed by New Zealand, Singapore, Switzerland, and Finland.

Overall, the top 20 countries in the World Citizenship Index (WCI) and their corresponding scores are as follows:

1| Denmark – 87.6

2| Switzerland – 87.3

3| Finland – 86.8

4| Sweden – 85.9

5| New Zealand – 85.8

6| Norway – 85.4

7| Netherlands – 85.1

8| Iceland – 84.8

8| Luxembourg - 84.8

8| Singapore – 84.8

9| Germany – 84.4

10| Liechtenstein – 84.1

11| Ireland – 83.6

11| Japan – 83.6

12| Austria – 83.3

13| Australia – 83.2

13| Canada – 83.2

14| United Kingdom – 83.0

15| Monaco – 81.2

16| Belgium – 81.1

17| Estonia – 79.7

18| Hong Kong (SAR China) – 79.4

19| France – 79.2

20| Czech Republic – 79.1

20| Taiwan – 79.1 

Meanwhile, here are the countries in the bottom half of the rankings:

136| Niger – 39.4

137| Nigeria – 39.1

138| Pakistan – 38.6

138| Myanmar – 38.6 138

139| Ethiopia – 38.5

140| Mozambique – 38.4

141| Haiti – 37.9

142| Congo (Democratic Republic) – 37.2

143| Mali – 3 6.4

144| Congo (Republic) – 36.0

144| Eritrea – 36.0

145| Burundi – 34.2

146| Central African Republic – 33.8

147| Syria – 33.7

148| Chad – 33.4

149| Afghanistan – 32.3

149| Sudan – 32.3

150| South Sudan – 29.8

151| Yemen – 29.4

152| Somalia – 24.9

“For decades countries like the US, Canada, the UK, and France were attractive destinations for many who wanted to migrate,” the report says. “However, those popular countries are all struggling, both financially with the threat of a recession and inflation, as well as experiencing civil unrest in the form of protests and strikes. The mass affluent and high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) have begun to look for alternative destinations as a bolt hole for future crises, countries that offer the freedoms that are lacking in their home nations.”

The WCR was researched and published by CS Global Partners, a leader in the investment immigration industry.