Citizenship plays a major role in people’s lives. It’s probably the biggest contributor to a person’s quality of life.

A new list by Italian Dual Citizenship, and published on Lonely Planet, ranks countries in accordance with the benefits and rights it offers its citizens.

With Ireland coming in at number two.

A number of factors were considered including passport mobility, human rights, women’s rights, parental leave, political democracy, equal marriage rights, labour standards and healthcare performance.

Countries were rated out of five in each category before getting a total score at the end.

Ranking as the best citizenship in the world is Iceland. Saying that “Nordic countries tend to have fairly high living standards”, Iceland topped the list for the many benefits it offers its citizens.

According to the index, new fathers can take 12 weeks of paid parental leave, same-sex couples can legally be married within the country and although the country hasn’t yet closed the pay gap between the genders it has closed it by at least 80 per cent.

Ireland wasn’t far behind, ranking for its high passport mobility score – citizens can visit 170 countries either without a visa or by gaining a visa on arrival. Ireland wins out over Iceland in a few categories including judicial independence and longer maternity leave (42 weeks compared to Iceland’s 13 weeks).

Finland, Sweden and the UK came in third, fourth and fifth respectively while the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Luxembourg and New Zealand completed the top ten.

You can read the full list here.