South Africa has been ranked 89th out of 161 countries in a new index which claims to be the first ever to objectively ranks the quality of nationalities worldwide. The Henley & Partners – Kochenov Quality of Nationality Index (QNI) explores both internal factors‚ such as the scale of the economy‚ human development‚ and peace and stability‚ as well as external factors‚ including visa-free travel and the ability to settle and work abroad without cumbersome formalities‚ that make one nationality better than another in terms of legal status in which to develop one's talents and business. The QNI consistently ranks the German nationality the highest in the world over the last five years with a score of 83.1%. The nationality of the Democratic Republic of Congo sits at the bottom of the index on 14.3%.South Africa scored 30%.Professor Dr Dimitry Kochenov‚ a leading constitutional law professor with a long-standing interest in European and comparative citizenship law‚ says the key premise of the index is that it’s possible to compare the relative worth of nationalities – as opposed to‚ simply‚ countries.“Everyone has a nationality of one or more states. States differ to a great degree – Russia is huge‚ Swaziland is small‚ Luxembourg is rich‚ Mongolia is less so. Just as with the states‚ the nationalities themselves differ too.“Importantly‚ there is no direct correlation between the power of the state and the quality of its nationality. Nationality plays a significant part in determining our opportunities and aspirations‚ and the QNI allows us‚ for the first time‚ to analyse this objectively.”..