About the Index

The world has an index for everything money can buy — except the one decision that shapes everything else: where you live.

The World Residence Index exists to answer that question with data. Each year it ranks all 211 countries and territories on earth by their desirability as places of residence for internationally mobile individuals, families and entrepreneurs — people with the freedom to choose, and everything to gain from choosing well. Every score reads on a single scale where higher is better, and every figure traces to a named public source.

Principles

How the index stays honest.

  1. 01

    Transparent

    Every formula, cap and scale is published in the Methodology Manual. Nothing in the ranking is produced by judgement that cannot be inspected, challenged and reproduced.

  2. 02

    Independent

    No territory can pay to improve its position, and no advertiser influences a score. The index has one constituency: the people who use it to decide where to live.

  3. 03

    Reproducible

    Built from named public sources — IMF, UN, WHO, SIPRI, UNODC, WJP, Transparency International — and rebuilt from raw data every year, with every change logged.

History

Six editions, one method.

  1. First edition published — 209 countries across seven parameters.
  2. Methodology overhaul: capped scales, logarithmic scaling, special tax regimes.
  3. Safety & Rule of Law and the Woke Score introduced; coverage reaches 211 territories.
  4. Scoring unified so every score reads higher = better. Sixth edition.

Lineage

Built by index-makers.

The WRI comes from the team behind the CCI30, the rules-based cryptocurrency index that became a reference for an entire asset class. The same discipline applies here: fixed rules, published methodology, annual rebalancing — the standards of financial indexing, applied to the question of residence. The index covers every sovereign state, dependency and autonomous territory on earth.

Get in touch

Advisory, licensing and press enquiries.

For licensing the index, press access to the annual report, or advisory engagements built on WRI data.

Contact the index

World Residence Index™ © 2026 · 211 territories · 9 parameters · Research, not advice.