St. Kitts and Nevis and Dominica have secured the top two positions in the tenth edition of the Citizenship by Investment (CBI) Index . The 2026 edition of the CBI was officially released on Wednesday October, 14 2026. St. Kitts and Nevis takes the top spot with 78 points, three points ahead of Dominica, which scores 75.
St. Kitts and Nevis continues its impressive run at the top, marking its sixth consecutive year at number one, while Dominica maintains its positions at number two. This year the top five Caribbean nations in the CBI report are St. Kitts & Nevis with 78 points, Dominica with 75 points, Grenada with 72 points, St. Lucia with 71 points, and Antigua and Barbuda with 65 points.
The rankings were determined by the overall performance of the countries citizenship programmes across nine pillars: Standard of living, Freedom of Movement, Investment Options and Threshold, Mandatory Travel or Residence, Citizenship Timeline, Ease of Processing, Due Diligence, Family, and Certainty of Product.
Additionally, St Kitts and Nevis scored maximum 10 points in four key pillars of the CBI Index: Mandatory Travel or Residence, Ease of Processing, Due Diligence and Certainty of Product 10 points each. In the remaining five pillars, its scores ranged from 6 to 9 points. St. Kitts and Nevis secured a percentage of 86 in the Global Ranking of the CBI Index 2026.
Moreover, St. Kitts and Nevis first topped the table in 2021 and has maintained its position for six years, although it shared first place with Dominica in 2021 and 2022.
This year, Dominica scored 10 points in three pillars: Mandatory Travel or Residence, Ease of Processing and Certainty of Product. It also scored 9 points in Citizenship Timeline, Due Diligence and Family. In the remaining three pillars, Dominica scored 7 points in Standard of Living and Freedom of Movement, and 6 in Investment Options and Threshold. The island secured a percentage of 83 in the Global Ranking of the CBI Index 2026.
Additionally, Malta scored the highest with 9 points, in the Standard of living pillar. Austria and Malta received the highest scores in the Freedom of Movement. In the Investment Options Threshold pillar, Antigua and Barbuda, Egypt and St. Lucia scored the highest 9 points each. In the Mandatory Travel or Residence pillar, 7 nations scored 10 points.
Sao Tome and Principe scored maximum 10 points in the Citizenship Timeline pillar. Six nations scored 10 points in the Ease of Processing pillar of the CBI Index. St. Kitts and Nevis scored 10 points in the Due Diligence pillar, while three nations scored 10 points in the Family pillar of the CBI index 2026. Moreover, Dominica and St. Kitts and Nevis both scored 10 points in the Certainty of Product pillar.
According to CBI reports, this year rankings remained unchanged from those of 2025.The report said, “The CBI Index 2026 presents an unusual combination of Stability and change. While every programme retains the same ranking position as in 2025, 11 of the 14 jurisdictions record a change in their overall score”.
This year, Nauru among the non-Caribbean nations, strengthened its positions in the rankings, increasing its score by two points to 64.
Changing Landscape of CBI Industry
The CBI report also highlighted the introduction of a 30-day residence requirement programme for the Caribbean nations, in which interested applicants have to be physically present in the island for 30 days. Before the introduction of the programme applicants applied for citizenship without spending time on the island.
The report mentioned that through this new changes in the citizenship programmes helps in transparency between Citizenship by Investment and Residence by Investment. The report said, “This would help narrow one of the clearest structural distinctions between Citizenship by Investment and Residency by Investment. They remain different routes with different legal outcomes”.
New Entries’ Performance
The CBI Index 2026 report highlighted growing interest in the industry from countries seeking to introduce investment based citizenship programmes, including, Argentina, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Botswana. However, the report also stated that announcing a programme or introducing legislation does not confirm that it will become operational.
The report said, “Yet the history of CBI shows that legislation and launch announcements offer no guarantee that a functioning programme will follow”.