World Citizenship Report 2024 reveals Quality of Life as top priority for HNWIs

The 2024 World Citizenship Report launched by CS Global Partners dives into the biggest motivating factors for high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) to settle abroad. The annual report indicated that ‘Quality of Life’ was the most important factor when considering alternative citizenship for 36.9 percent of participants.

The 3rd edition of WCR combined its analysis of Quality of Life, Safety and Security, Economic Opportunity, Global Mobility and Financial Freedom with high-level contributions. The report measures 188 nations against these five motivators which are relevant among HNWIs. This year’s top scorer in citizenship rankings Ireland scored highly for its safe society, growing economy as well as financial freedom while Monaco, Denmark, and Hong Kong took the top spots for Quality of Life in 2024, reflecting the high standard of living and wealth these jurisdictions can extend to all their citizens.

The in-depth research by CS Global Partners also indicated that the issues which lend themselves to an improve quality of life matter more than ever to the investors.

When asked in what areas do the investors feel their present government is failing, they indicated that environmental sustainability, healthcare and a competitive economy were the requirements that were not being met properly by their governments.

In this, over 50% people indicated that they did not have access to quality and affordable healthcare which makes them to consider an alternative citizenship.

The World Citizenship Index’s (WCIs) Quality of Life motivator relies on the Human Development Index (HDI) published by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), which is the world’s most authoritative measure of human development across multiple dimensions.

The date results also reflected the samples from which they were taken, which were mostly large nations such as United States, Canada, South Africa, China and India.

The report noted that several of these nations are having elections this year; in election years, these sorts of socio-economic, and household issues become more apparent.

It is to be noted that the mention of global elections in this year’s World Citizenship Report is its main focus point with the theme being ‘Responsibility, Peace, Freedom’ emphasising that the people’s major responsibility is to cast a vote. While talking about the biggest motivator for the investors, the CEO of CS Global Partners, Micha Rose Emmett also shared her insights and said, “In our survey of over 500 HNWIs, we found that quality of life outstripped other motivations of citizenship, and can we truly be surprised by this? In times of electoral and geopolitical insecurity, the bread-and-butter issues of healthcare and the physical environment are fundamentally important.” DOWNLOAD THE FULL REPORT HERE 

The report also found that the metrics of quality of life, which tend to measure countries’ standard of living are cautiously optimistic for 2024 as compared to 2023. With a slow and steady reduction in cost of living compared to the highs of 2023, households in nations such as the UK, India and the US will find a slightly lessened burden on living standards.

The survey further indicated that quality of life goes beyond economic projections with environmental sustainability being integral to an enhanced quality of life. The COP-28 agreement, along with climate resilience leadership from regions such as the Caribbean has supported in bringing this motivator into the fore as the paramount consideration for global citizens.

According to the World Citizenship Report, countries such as St. Kitts and Nevis and Dominica ranked in the top third of citizenships in the World Citizenship Index (WCI).

Overall, the rising importance of quality of life both underscores its universal appeal and how the current macroeconomic and geopolitical circumstances have come to bear on living standards globally.