Ten Years of the CBI Index: What a Decade of Data Reveals About the Industry
St. Kitts and Nevis retains top position as the CBI Index marks a decade of change in investment migration
The tenth-anniversary edition draws on a decade of CBI Index data to show how the industry has evolved, and how rising thresholds, stronger regulation, and new country players are reshaping investor migration.
LONDON, 14 October 2026:
The CBI Index, published today, remains the only independent report ranking programmes in the citizenship-by-investment industry. Over the past ten years, the index has ranked every country that offers an operational, legal citizenship-by-investment programme.
As the industry has grown and evolved over the past decade, the CBI Index has tracked its progress and challenges, assessed the programmes available, and provided prospective applicants with a trusted benchmark for comparing their options.
Now in its tenth year, the CBI Index is an annual benchmark of the world’s operational CBI programmes. The 2026 anniversary edition assesses 14 programmes across nine pillars, ranging from freedom of movement and due diligence to family inclusion and certainty of product. It also looks back over a decade in which the industry has moved from a fragmented, price-led market to one increasingly shaped by regulatory scrutiny and regional coordination.
Stable Rankings, Shifting Foundations
St. Kitts and Nevis emerges as the best citizenship-by-investment (CBI) programme in the CBI Index 2026. Dominica ranks second and Grenada third, with Caribbean programmes holding all five leading positions in the Index’s tenth edition.
Beyond the region, Nauru strengthens its position as the highest-ranked programme outside the Caribbean as it completes its first full operational cycle. Malta, by contrast, sees its score fall after ending its former investor framework and moving to a discretionary Citizenship by Merit route following the April 2025 judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union.
The repricing of citizenship
This year’s report focuses on what it calls a broader repricing of citizenship. For example, harmonised minimum investment thresholds, more extensive due diligence, and the creation of the Eastern Caribbean Citizenship by Investment Regulatory Authority (ECCIRA) are changing how programmes compete.
The effective price of citizenship is also increasingly shaped by what applicants must do to qualify. The ECCIRA agreement will require CBI citizens to spend at least 30 days in their country of citizenship in total during the first five years.
The report also observes that recent instability in the Middle East has not produced the marked rise in CBI demand that might have been expected, suggesting that citizenship is increasingly considered within wider mobility and wealth planning rather than as an immediate response to crisis.
James McKay, principal of McKayResearch and creator of the CBI Index, said:
“A decade of the CBI Index shows how fundamentally the market has changed. Citizenship now commands a higher price, but governments are also being held to much higher standards of governance, due diligence and credibility.”
A decade of due diligence
The anniversary edition traces how due diligence has moved from a component of CBI programmes to the foundation of their credibility, with mandatory interviews, biometric checks, regional information-sharing and post-approval monitoring now central to the Caribbean model.
Reflecting on the decade in the report’s expert panel, Heyrick Bond Gunning, Chief Executive Officer of S-RM, said: “Greater competition has made credibility a more important differentiator than price or speed alone, with due diligence having moved from being a procedural step to the foundation of programme legitimacy.”
The next pipeline
The report also examines prospective entrants, including Argentina, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Botswana, which would extend CBI into new regions. Consistent with its methodology, the Index assesses programmes on operation rather than announcement, and notes that new entrants will launch under considerably greater international scrutiny than their predecessors.
The full CBI Index 2026 report, including rankings across all nine pillars, is available at www.cbiindex.com.