Data transparency
Methodology
A data platform is only as trustworthy as its methodology is clear and public. This page sets out how we standardise scoring, where the data comes from, and what we do not do.
How to read the scale
Most indices are put on a 0–100 scale so they are easy to read, but each one is calculated in the way that suits its data. Some compare each country with the highest and lowest in the list after setting aside outliers; some score against fixed thresholds; some add up several components using published weights. Each index page states its own method. Passport Index also shows how many destinations each passport reaches without applying for a visa in advance; Migration ROI narrows very large gaps between programmes so scores do not bunch at the ends of the scale.
A 0–100 score shows where a country stands against the others within the same index. A score of 80 for tax and a score of 80 for healthcare therefore measure different things and cannot be compared directly. Pillars are only added together in composite scores whose formula and weights are published.
Three tiers of indices
The three tiers only group indices by depth.
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Tier 1 · Core
Foundation indices, drawn from government and international-organisation sources.
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Tier 2 · Premium
In-depth indices for migration and wealth-preservation decisions: tax, safety, healthcare, education, cost of living.
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Tier 3 · Signature
Composite scores weighted from tier 1 and 2 indices. Each one publishes its rule for missing data.
Newsletter
Get the latest updates
Ongoing updates on passports, quality of life, safety, tax freedom, wealth protection and other data.
Data principles
- Source priority government / intergovernmental / independent bodies.
- We only use data whose licence allows republication. Most of it is under CC-BY, which allows reuse with attribution.
- Entry rules are checked against each country's official government portal, and every link is checked to be live.
- The source, version and update date of every index are recorded on the Data sources page. Travel or investment-programme information should be rechecked at the official link before you act on it.
- Composite scores are published only once their component indices have been verified.
What we don't do
- We neither copy nor directly compare against any other organisation's ranking — the calculation method is proprietary to us.
- No ranking by sponsor; the data stays neutral towards every programme.
- We do not sell users' personal data to third parties.
- We give no legal, tax or investment advice — this is reference data for research.
How each of the 14 indices is scored
The source, version and update date of every index are recorded on a separate page.
Tier 1 · Core
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Opportunity Map is a programme explorer, not a 0–100 score or a “best country” ranking. Default filters show only active/new snapshot statuses. Closed, suspended and proposed programmes appear only when selected. Statuses and conditions are historical observations at the source-check date shown on each programme, not confirmation that a programme is open today; always recheck the official authority before making a decision. Amounts, timing and paths are historical references; family eligibility, additional fees, taxes, exchange rates and applicant qualifications must be checked against official rules. A dash means missing data, not no requirement.
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Strength = visa-free + visa on arrival + eTA, normalised to 0–100. e-Visa is recorded separately and does not count toward Strength.
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Weighted mean of 8 pillars: Health 16, Safety 14, Economy 14, Education 14, Environment 14, Equality 12, Infrastructure 8, Digital 8. Normalised 0-100.
Tier 2 · Premium
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Min-max normalisation after capping outliers at 2.5–97.5%. Affordability of living costs = low prices 70% + price stability 30%; purchasing power = PPP income / price level 80% + price stability 20%. When stability data is unavailable, the remaining pillar receives all weight. Each indicator uses its latest available observation, so years can differ across countries. Scores run from 0 to 100; higher is better within each view. These are not rents, monthly USD budgets or personal income estimates. The snapshot date is not the observation year of every indicator. Covers the household price level, purchasing-power income and inflation. Numbeo is not used: its licence bars republication and commercial use.
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5 pillars: Learning quality 28, Educational attainment 22, Expected years of schooling 18, Education spending 17, Basic access 15.
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5 pillars: Violent crime 30, Stability & absence of terrorism 24, Law enforcement & order 18, Road safety 16, Absence of armed conflict 12.
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5 pillars: Health outcomes 26, Coverage & access 22, Health workforce & facilities 18, Spending & investment 18, Financial protection 16.
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Higher score = lighter tax. 6 pillars: Personal income 24, Capital gains & dividends 20, System & incentives 16, Net wealth 14, Inheritance & gift 14, Corporate & social security 12. Absolute scale, not winsorised.
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Higher score = capital is safer. 6 pillars: Rule of law & property rights 26, Political stability 16, Institutions & regulation 16, Financial soundness 16, Monetary stability 14, Freedom of capital movement 12.
Tier 3 · Signature
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6 pillars: Education 26, Healthcare 20, Safety 20, Quality of life 16, Affordability 10, Passport 8. The Passport pillar is the Passport Index score exactly as on its card (min–max normalised). A territory without its own passport uses the passport score of its parent state, as in the passport ranking.
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8 pillars: Passport 18, Quality of life 16, Safety 14, Healthcare 12, Purchasing power & price stability 12, Education 10, Wealth protection 10, Tax 8. Reweighted across whichever pillars have data; at least 60% of the total weight must be present. The Passport pillar is the Passport Index score exactly as on its card (min–max normalised). The purchasing power & price stability pillar is the Cost of Living purchasing-power mode score: 80% real purchasing power, 20% price stability. A territory without its own passport uses the passport score of its parent state, as in the passport ranking.
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ROI = visa-free destinations / (cost in USD millions x years to citizenship), log-normalised to 0-100. Only programmes that are active or new, capital-gated, and lead to citizenship are scored.
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6 pillars: Affordability 24, Healthcare 24, Safety 18, Quality of life 14, Tax 12, Wealth protection 8.
How the Travel Index score works
The travel score is a 0–100 number combining two parts: how easy it is to get in with your passport, and how good the destination itself is for the trip style you pick.
30%
Entry
Visa conditions for the selected passport, scored as:
- Visa-free100
- eTA90
- Visa on arrival75
- e-Visa55
- Consular visa required15
70%
Destination
Weighted average of the 10 factors below; weights change with the trip style.
0–100
Travel score
Higher means easier and more worthwhile. Change passport, month or trip style and it recalculates instantly.
Safety, Affordability, Weather required · data for ≥ 70% of weight — else not ranked
Destination weights by trip style
| Factor | Balanced & leisure | Adventure, expedition | Culture & discovery |
|---|---|---|---|
| Safety | 20 | 13 | 18 |
| Affordability | 16 | 13 | 13 |
| Weather | 16 | 11 | 13 |
| Experience | 13 | 11 | 33 |
| Health | 8 | 4 | 5 |
| Infrastructure | 7 | 2 | 7 |
| Environment | 6 | 8 | 5 |
| Digital | 6 | 2 | 3 |
| Adventure | 4 | 32 | 0 |
| Disease | 4 | 4 | 3 |
| Each column sums to 100. | |||
The 10 destination factors
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Safety
Global Safety Index score: violent crime, stability, rule enforcement, road safety, absence of armed conflict.
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Affordability
Cost of Living Index score (Affordability mode): 70% consumer price level, cheaper is higher, plus 30% price stability, lower inflation is higher.
Measures national consumer prices, not hotel or attraction prices.
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Weather
Monthly comfort, 0–100. A day-and-night mean of 17–24 °C scores 100; below 17 °C loses 6 points per degree, above 24 °C loses 10 points per degree. Rain above 2.5 mm/day loses 5 points per mm, up to 45. Above 22 °C with humidity over 70%, a further 0.8 points per % of humidity. “All year” averages the 12 months.
Measured at the capital; for large countries such as the US, Russia, Australia or China the capital does not represent the whole country.
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Experience
Richness of the trip: cultural heritage 30 · intangible heritage 20 · natural heritage 15 · cities over 1 million 15 · coastline 10 · mountains 10. Counts use a log scale: 40 cultural sites, 20 intangible elements, 15 natural sites or 10 cities reach 100; mountains follow the highest point, 4,000 m is 100.
Food and beach-island leisure are not yet measured, so places like the Maldives score low.
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Health
Healthcare Index score: health outcomes, coverage and health resources.
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Infrastructure
Infrastructure Index score: access to electricity 30 · clean water 26 · sanitation 22 · logistics 22.
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Environment
Air quality and protected nature: the average of two factors of the Environment Index.
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Digital
Digital Index score: internet and mobile access.
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Adventure
How wild: protected areas 25 · sparse population 25 · terrain 20 · natural heritage 20 · forest 10. Protected areas covering 40% of land score 100; 1 person/km² scores 100 and 100 people/km² scores 50; a 5,000 m peak scores 100; 15 natural sites score 100; 70% forest cover scores 100.
Does not use conflict, insecurity or lack of infrastructure: danger sits in the Safety factor, infrastructure in the Infrastructure factor.
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Disease
Malaria cases per 1,000 people at risk; score = 100 − 40 × log10(1 + cases).
Countries never in the WHO series for 2000–2024 are treated as non-endemic (100); countries in the series without data since 2015 are treated as missing.
The data source of each factor is listed on the Data sources page. See the data sources →
Key things to know
- Missing data: a destination must have Safety, Affordability and Weather data, and data for at least 70% of the trip style’s weight to be ranked; missing factors have their weight shared among the rest. Within Adventure and Experience, at least 60% of component weight is required.
- Adventure and Experience are stretched to 0–100 across destinations that have the three core factors, Safety, Affordability and Weather (lowest is 0, highest is 100) so that switching trip style visibly changes the ranking; raw scores are kept for audit.
- Second passport: each destination takes the easier entry of the two. This is illustrative and does not imply every dual-citizenship pair is legal; some countries restrict dual nationality.
- Entry rules change often. This is an independent reference index, not travel advice; check the destination’s official requirements before you go.
Monthly living costs: basket, sources and exchange rates
Alongside the Cost of Living score, Prosperous Intelligence reads 2026 prices itself in one city per country and adds them up into a monthly budget for a single person and for a family of four (two adults, two primary-school children). We do not use cost-of-living figures compiled by other organisations: every price comes from its original source. The budget is shown next to the score and does not change the score or its ranking. 24 countries are covered so far; countries not yet researched show no budget.
The monthly basket
- City and housing: The capital, unless the economic centre is another city (for example New York, Toronto, Sydney, Zurich, Istanbul, Dubai, Ho Chi Minh City). Long-term rental outside the city centre: a one-bedroom flat for one person, a three-bedroom flat for the family, at least 10 listings for each.
- Utilities: Billed from the official tariff, including fixed charges and taxes: 200 kWh of electricity and 4 m³ of water for one person, 450 kWh and 15 m³ for the family; gas (100 kWh or 225 kWh) only where gas is common for cooking.
- Internet and mobile: The cheapest home broadband plan of at least 100 Mbps and the cheapest mobile plan with at least 10 GB, from the two largest operators; the family has two mobile plans.
- Core food basket: Rice 2 kg, bread 4 loaves, milk 6 L, eggs 30, chicken breast 2 kg, beef 1 kg, tomatoes 2 kg, potatoes 2 kg, onions 1 kg, lettuce 2 heads, apples, bananas and oranges 2 kg each, cooking oil 1 L and bottled water 8 × 1.5 L, at the online prices of two large supermarket chains. The family basket is 3.2 times the single basket. This basket prices 15 everyday items so countries can be compared; it leaves out groups such as pasta and cereals, cheese, fish, pork, canned goods, other drinks, spices and snacks, so it is lower than what a household actually spends on food.
- Eating out: Eight meals at an inexpensive restaurant and two at a mid-range restaurant for one person; 16 and 4 meals for the family.
- Transport: A monthly adult public-transport pass; the family has two adult and two child or student passes. Where no unlimited monthly pass exists, the cheapest fare package covering 44 trips a month is used, or 44 single fares.
- International school (reference only, not in the totals): The annual Grade 3 tuition of three international schools, divided by 12.
What is stored and what is shown
Each item has at least two price observations: two sources or two products, plans or listings. For every item we keep the lowest, highest and average price, the number of observations, the original currency, the link to each source and the date it was read. The pages show the average. Ranks compare only the countries researched; #1 is the cheapest.
Exchange rates and dates
Prices were read in 2026 and converted to US dollars at the central-bank rate of each country (the European Central Bank for the euro area) on one fixed date for the whole round. The rate, its source and date are stored with the data and listed on the Data sources page, together with the period in which prices were read.
Limits
One city does not represent a whole country. The food line is a fixed basket of 15 items, not full household food spending. The budget leaves out heating or cooling beyond the standard electricity amount, insurance, healthcare, taxes and one-off costs such as deposits. Cities covered: Amsterdam, Athens, Auckland, Bangkok, Berlin, Dubai, Dublin, Ho Chi Minh City, Kuala Lumpur, Limassol, Lisbon, London, Madrid, Milan, New York, Panama City, Paris, San José, Seoul, Singapore, Sydney, Toronto, Valletta metro area, Zurich.
