The report points to a more distributed global landscape rather than a straightforward decline in American power. While the US continues to rank among the world’s leading jurisdictions for economic opportunity, other countries are increasingly competing with it across the different measures that shape how citizenship is valued globally.
US remains a leading economic power
The US ranked second globally for Economic Opportunity, scoring 81.3, behind China at 89.3 and ahead of Ireland at 80.3. The report describes Economic Opportunity as a multidimensional measure, with factors such as innovation, institutional stability and financial infrastructure contributing to the position of developed economies.
Overall, however, the US ranked 16th among 188 jurisdictions, with a score of 76.8. Its other results included 21st for Quality of Life, 13th for Global Mobility, 26th for Financial Freedom and 73rd for Safety and Security.
This means the US did not lead any of the five motivators assessed by the World Citizenship Index, even though it remained highly ranked across several of them.
China closes the gap on soft power
The USA Spotlight 2026 outlined the changes in America’s wider international influence. According to the report, China is increasingly leading and closing that gap on soft power as the largest US declines were recorded in perceived generosity, relations with other countries and ease of doing business.
The report connects this shift with developments in both economic and diplomatic influence. China led the Economic Opportunity pillar, while the US remained second. At the same time, Singapore led Global Mobility and Financial Freedom, Germany led Quality of Life and Iceland led Safety and Security.
Global mobility reflects a changing balance
Global Mobility provides another indication of how the international landscape is evolving. Singapore ranked first in the 2026 Index with a score of 91.0, followed by Japan and South Korea, which were tied at 89.6. The US ranked 13th.
The USA Spotlight describes mobility as an indicator that develops through sustained diplomatic engagement and can gradually weaken when international relationships change.
It also points to China’s efforts to expand short-stay entry arrangements with a number of countries during 2026, while noting increased scrutiny faced by travellers and new arrivals entering the US.
American influence remains substantial
Despite these changes, the report does not describe the US as having lost its position as a major global jurisdiction. Instead, it characterises the results as a redistribution of influence. The US continues to attract talent and capital at scale and remains second on the Economic Opportunity pillar.
The report also notes that the US continued to perform strongly as a destination for visitors. The 2026 FIFA World Cup, co-hosted in the US, Canada and Mexico, had already passed 3.6 million spectators with weeks still remaining, according to the report.
However, the report suggests that international attraction and domestic confidence are not necessarily moving in the same direction.
Only around one-third of mass affluent respondents said they were very confident that their existing citizenship would provide the same security and opportunity over the next decade. Meanwhile, 45.4% identified a competitive economy as the area where they most often felt their government was failing them.
Citizenship demand adds another dimension
The changing power landscape is also reflected in the report’s findings on additional citizenship.
Some 71.6% of mass affluent respondents said they were more likely to consider an additional citizenship in response to global events, compared with just 2.7% who were less inclined. Business and professional opportunity was the leading present-day motivation, cited by 29.9% of respondents, followed by investment diversification at 24.5%.
The report further states that US nationals accounted for nearly one-third of all citizenship applications processed globally in the first quarter of 2026, based on industry-wide figures cited in the report.
The trend was particularly visible in the Caribbean. Americans represented around half of Antigua and Barbuda’s applicants in the early part of 2026, compared with roughly a quarter during the whole of 2025.
A more multipolar citizenship landscape
Taken together, the findings show a global citizenship landscape in which the US remains a major economic and institutional power but no longer dominates every measure considered important by globally minded families.
China leads Economic Opportunity, Singapore leads Global Mobility and Financial Freedom, Germany leads Quality of Life, and Iceland leads Safety and Security. Meanwhile, Ireland ranks first overall in the World Citizenship Index with a score of 85.1.
For the US, the picture is therefore mixed: strong economic opportunity alongside lower rankings in several other measures, coupled with evidence of changing perceptions among affluent Americans.
The USA Spotlight 2026 ultimately presents this not as a simple story of American decline, but as a shift towards a world in which influence is distributed across more jurisdictions and where globally mobile families increasingly evaluate citizenship across multiple dimensions rather than relying on the strength of a single country.