Canadian passports were once prized trophies for entrepreneurs, but times are changing. That’s the takeaway from the 2022 edition of the Passport Index. The Index is produced by Nomad Capitalist, a global consultancy for high net-worth entrepreneurs that happens to have over 400k Youtube subscribers. They only gave Canada a minor drop in score, but Canada largely stagnated. Over the past five years, the competition for entrepreneurs has become much more intense.
About The Passport Index
The Passport Index ranks 199 countries for the most attractive citizenships for entrepreneurs. Not every country is suitable for all entrepreneurs, but it gives a general idea of elite options. The firm scores countries in five major areas — travel, taxation, perception, citizenship, and personal freedoms.
Luxembourg, Sweden, and Ireland Top The List
Before we get to Canada, let’s look at the top of the list and see what Canada is up against. Countries that are ranked in the top all have quality social services, stellar global reputations, and are known as low and stable tax regions. Luxembourg holds the top spot, an honor it’s held for the past five years. The country has always been widely regarded as a safe place for global capital. It’s also now attractive for people to join their capital as well.
Well-known entrepreneur hubs Sweden and Ireland round out the top three.
The top of the ranks may seem a little biased towards European countries. The top 20 also includes Singapore (9th), South Korea (12th), New Zealand (18th), and tied with New Zealand, Japan (18th). It’s not a European rank bias, per se. But global perception, visa-free travel, and personal freedoms are common in Europe.
Canada Slipped Down To 26th For 2022
Now, let’s look at Canada which is seeing the value of its passports slip down in the ranks. Canada fell to the 26th place in the 2022 list, down from the 23rd spot last year. It’s now tied with Greece and the United Kingdom. That’s post-Brexit UK, if you’re wondering.
The loss in points appears to be exclusively in global perception, where Canada came in 10 points lower in 2022. Perception uses both internal and external indexes, as well as their professional network recommendations.
“We relied on the World Happiness Report, the Human Development Index, and subjective factors from our networks’ experiences to determine how each country’s citizens are received and recognized,” is how the firm describes the section in the report.
Just 5 Years Ago, Canada Was One of The Most Sought After Passports
Just five years ago, Canadian passports were some of the highest ranked in the Passport Index. Canada tied for the 14th spot in 2017, along with the Netherlands at the time. While Canada has slipped lower, the Netherlands climbed to the 9th spot in 2022. The long-term drop in Canada’s rank is only due to mild deterioration in the country’s score. The big contributor to the drop is that competition for entrepreneurs has become a lot more fierce. It turns out every country wants a group of deep pocketed job makers. Who knew?
Canada has built a global reputation as a hub for immigrant opportunities. While this is just one list, it’s a list that shows how competitive the rest of the world is getting. As Canada rests on its laurels, the value proposition of immigration is looking less attractive. Especially true if you’re young and looking for economic opportunity in Canada, because it’s forecast to be scarce.
Read about the full Passport Index here.
The wages are lower in Canada compared to Switzerland and Luxembourg. I’ve heard that home prices aren’t crazy like in Canada either.
What is the use working hard when houses make more money than labour and innovation? You can work harder and harder in Canada, get taxed more, and your savings are worth nothing in terms of real estate. Lose lose proposition unless the real estate bubble crashes to saner levels.
There is absolutely no reason why a cottage in the middle of the wilderness of Ontario should be valued at C$1,000,000, but there are Greater Fools.
yep, competition for the ranking is key, not Trudeau seizing peoples bank accounts. for sure.
That comment only shows your political bias and brings no further reasonable argument to the table.
Yeah because Trudeau gave one away to anyone who wants one.
That’s nothing but an idiotic political statement.
Our passport may not be the most enviable but you have to admit it’s a beautiful place to be!
British journalist Oliver Bullough has dedicated much of his career to tracing how ill-gotten wealth is moved across borders and sheltered in safe havens, including documenting how Russian oligarchs protect their assets with the ASSISTANCE of Western institutions.
Thinking that Canada isn’t a popular place to park ill-gotten gains would be difficult to believe. If Western institutions are assisting those with high wealth to enter the country, so are the immigration department and immigration lawyers. Enablers can be found just about anywhere in Canada. They just don’t advertise in the local paper.