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Our proprietary benchmarking tool quantifies the impact and success potential of premium education combined with residence rights and/or alternative citizenships acquired through investment migration. It empowers investors and their children to pinpoint locations with optimal ecosystems for growing their global networks and maximizing their career prospects, earning potential, and economic mobility for greater success and prosperity across their lifetimes. Read the methodology and the press release.
The Henley Opportunity Index empowers investors to identify high-potential countries they can access through investment migration programs to secure residence rights or citizenship, ultimately enhancing their own and their children’s prospects for long-term success.
This interactive tool quantifies the transformative impact of world-class education combined with enhanced global access and privileges gained through citizenship of countries with greater opportunities. It demonstrates how this powerful combination can grow and preserve multi-generational wealth by expanding global networks, maximizing career prospects, boosting earning potential, and enhancing economic mobility.
Research shows that over 50-60% of global income variation is directly linked to differences in countries’ average incomes. Accessing opportunities in more economically developed countries through education and additional residence rights and/or citizenships can therefore significantly enhance earning potential and improve quality of life.
Henley & Partners onboarded clients from 94 different nationalities and received enquiries from individuals in over 180 countries in 2024 alone, underscoring the growing demand for access to global opportunities. The Henley Opportunity Index is a strategic resource for wealthy investors from countries with limited opportunities, helping them secure better prospects for their families and future generations,
The index evaluates the world’s top investment migration destinations across six key parameters:
The built-in comparison tool allows investors to analyze their current citizenship’s opportunities against those offered by leading investment migration countries. This provides a benchmark for strategic, data-driven decision-making, helping investors identify the most beneficial investment migration ecosystems for maximizing career prospects and prosperity for future generations.
Research indicates that the ability to balance wealth generation with opportunity creation is a hallmark of ascendant economies and vibrant societies. The Henley Opportunity Index helps families tailor investment migration strategies to secure pathways for their heirs to access world-class education, lucrative job markets, and enhanced quality of life through the flexibility of alternative residence or citizenship rights.
By quantifying the value of this potent combination, the Henley Opportunity Index helps families future-proof the next generation, empowering them to preserve and grow multi-generational wealth in an unpredictable world.
Key parameters
The framework includes parameters specifically relevant to international investors exploring investment migration programs in thriving countries with excellent education systems — programs that enable them and their children to access better opportunities and long-term residence without needing a work permit or visa.
The six overarching parameters are earning potential, career advancement, top-tier employment prospects, premium education, economic mobility, and high livability. All are converted to scores out of 100 and equally weighted to create a total opportunity score out of 100.
Earning potential
Investment migration is a long-term undertaking that enables one to live and work in the destination country indefinitely, therefore, rather than considering starting salaries for graduates or gross domestic product (GDP) data, the earning potential score is based on the cumulative sum of 10-year salary projections, adjusted to inflation and wage growth rates. Providing a high-level assessment of the job market, the scores reflect the average salaries in US dollars for highly skilled and experienced individuals in leading roles in senior positions across a diverse range of sectors: agriculture, the arts, business administration, engineering, health, IT, law, and science. Given the wide spectrum of careers and fields of interest, the intention is to provide broad guidelines for investors.
Key data sources include: Country national statistics offices, Glassdoor, International Monetary Fund, OECD, Statista
Career advancement
The career advancement score reflects the extent to which living in a country can foster professional development. The parameter takes into account the presence of leading global corporations listed in the Fortune Global 500 ranking, the availability of top executive positions at prestigious and globally influential organizations, and the percentage of the labor force with advanced education. Additionally, the score factors in the International Institute for Management Development (IMD) World Competitiveness Center’s World Talent Ranking 2024, which evaluates a nation’s talent development, attraction, and retention.
Key data sources include: Fortune 500, IMD World Competitiveness Center World Talent Ranking 2024, International Labour Organization
Top-tier employment prospects
The top-tier employment prospects score assesses the likelihood of finding employment in highly reputable and established organizations and innovative companies in the destination country. This score is particularly relevant for individuals leveraging investment migration to acquire residence rights and/or citizenship, as it provides insights into employment opportunities within dynamic and competitive markets. The score reflects the number of job postings by prestigious organizations as well as the level of innovation promotion based on the number of start-ups and investment in research and development and ICT development. Another important aspect is business competitiveness based on the IMD World Competitiveness Ranking 2024, which ranks countries according to how effectively they harness their capabilities towards sustainable economic success and well-being. The net migration rate sub-indicator is based on the difference between the number of immigrants and emigrants per country, divided by the population. Higher net migration rates signify a favorable environment for top-tier employment prospects, indicating a strong influx of talent and enhanced employment opportunities. A European Union mobility sub-indicator is included to reflect the advantage of EU citizenship, which allows unrestricted living and working rights across all member states. This enhances employment prospects through broader access to the integrated European labor market.
Key data sources include: IMD World Competitiveness Center World Competitiveness Ranking 2024, International Organization for Migration (IOM) Global Migration Data Portal, UN International Telecommunication Union ICT Development Index 2024
Premium education
The premium education score is derived from the Henley Ultimate Portfolio and appraises countries based on the efficacy of their private education systems, taking into account their innovativeness, private education capacity (number of top universities and top-tier international schools, private primary and secondary school enrolments), and the quality of education and opportunities for studying they provide.
Key data sources: International Baccalaureate Organization, Quacquarelli Symonds Limited QS World University Rankings 2025, UN Development Programme Human Development Index, World Bank
Economic mobility
The economic mobility score for each country is derived from the Henley Passport Power Index and represents the sum of the national GDP shares of global GDP for each of the destinations to which its passport holders have visa-free access, including their own GDP. The maximum possible score is 100, representing 100% of global GDP.
Key data sources: Henley Passport Index, World Bank
High livability
The high livability score is derived from the Henley Ultimate Portfolio, which has been constructed with the high- and ultra-high-net-worth investor in mind, and uses the scores for private healthcare, quality of life, and safety and security, equally weighted. Private healthcare evaluates countries’ private healthcare systems by assessing domestic private health expenditure and the number of private hospitals and insurance companies in each, health security, and healthcare access and quality. Quality of life assesses countries according to the happiness and well-being of their citizens, the standard of living and quality of life they offer, human development, cost of living, and demographic pressures. Safety and security measures each country’s peacefulness through assessing factors such as vulnerability to internal and external threats, overall political stability, and its progress toward achieving sustainability.
Key data sources: Dublin University Press SDG Index, The Fund for Peace Fragile States Index, OECD, UN Development Programme Human Development Index, World Bank, World Health Organization
Additional factor for top investment migration options: Number of Top 250 universities
This factor is considered separately as, unlike the other parameters, it is not converted into a score out of 100. Instead, it represents the number of universities in each country ranked among the Top 250 globally, as identified by the QS World University Rankings 2025. The QS World University Rankings 2025, which assesses over 1,500 institutions across 105 locations, is highly regarded by employers and academics, and is the only ranking to emphasize employability and sustainability — two important considerations for high-net-worth investors and their children when selecting world-class educational institutions.
The dataset for 46 countries was collected between January and February 2025 from publicly available open databases for the most recent year available.
Numerical variables were then normalized. For each indicator, the minimum value was transformed into a 0, the maximum value into a 1, and every other value into a decimal between 0 and 1:
x = (x – Min(x))/(Max(x) – Min(x))
Categorical variables were divided into distinct categories based on relevant criteria. Each category was assigned a numerical value to represent its level in a range from 0 to 1. The numerical values were assigned according to the relative importance of each category.
Next, the indicators were grouped into sub-parameters according to theme. Each sub-parameter includes between one and four indicators. The scores for sub-parameters were calculated by summing up the weighted values of their indicators.
The scores for the six key parameters were calculated by summing up the weighted values of their sub-parameters. The scores were multiplied by 100 so that the maximum value for each parameter is 100.
Sub-parameter = ∑ weighted individual indicators
Parameter = (∑ weighted sub-parameters) x 100
The total opportunity score is calculated by equally weighting the scores for the six key parameters, with a maximum possible value of 100:
Total opportunity score = 1/6∑ ( (earning potential + career advancement + top-tier employment prospects + premium education + economic mobility + high livability)
Earning potential
Earning potential is calculated from earning projections in US dollars over 10 years based on the average salaries for top jobs across the following sectors: agriculture, the arts, business administration, engineering, health, IT, law, and science.
The nominal values are projected for 10 years to 2035 as follows, considering annual inflation and wage growth rates:
The calculations do not consider associated costs, which vary greatly between countries.
Sources: Country national statistics offices, European Commission, Glassdoor, International Labour Organization, International Monetary Fund, OECD
Career advancement
Career advancement is calculated as the weighted sum of the following indicators:
Top-tier employment prospects
Top-tier employment prospects is calculated as the sum of the following indicators, equally weighted:
Premium education
Premium education is derived from the Henley Ultimate Portfolio score for premium education, which is calculated as the sum of the following indicators, equally weighted:
Economic mobility
Economic mobility is derived from the Henley Passport Power Index (HPP) score for economic mobility. The HPP score assesses the 199 countries included on the Henley Passport Index according to the percentage share of global GDP to which their passport holders have visa-free access, by taking into account their visa-free/visa-on-arrival scores out of a possible 227.
For example, if a country has a visa-free/visa-on-arrival score of 40 (meaning there are 40 destinations its passport holders can travel to without having to obtain a visa in advance), its Henley Passport Power score is calculated by summing the share of global GDP for each of the 40 destinations as well as its own.
Sources: IATA, National Statistics, Republic of China (Taiwan), The Henley Passport Index, The World Bank
High livability
The high livability score is calculated as the sum of the Henley Ultimate Portfolio scores for private healthcare, quality of life, and safety and security, equally weighted.
Private healthcare
The private healthcare parameter in the Henley Ultimate Portfolio evaluates countries’ private healthcare systems is calculated as the sum of the following indicators, equally weighted:
Healthcare system: health system score in the Best Countries ranking. Source: U.S. News
Quality of life
The quality of life parameter in the Henley Ultimate Portfolio is calculated as the sum of the following indicators, equally weighted:
Safety and security
The safety and security parameter in the Henley Ultimate Portfolio is calculated as the sum of the following indicators, equally weighted:
Number of Top 250 universities
The number of universities ranked in the Top 250 globally. This data is shown only for the 16 countries offering investment migration options that are also education destination countries. Source. Quacquarelli Symonds Limited QS World University Rankings 2025
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