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Comment by arto | Hacker News Reader

The UK passport is the best in the world in every ranking:

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/top-10-most-powerful-passport...

That shows it tied with Finland and Sweden, and the only ranking it uses is how many countries you can travel to without a visa, which is a bit limited as a statement of 'power' (though it is definitely an important measure). Other important measures would be in how many countries there are consular services available for holders of a certain passport and a couple of others.

There are other measures and rankings elsewhere.

In addition to the additional metrics you mentioned, perhaps yet another to take into account is how hostile natives feel towards you when traveling in certain parts of the world--up to and including harassment, kidnapping, and (in limited locations) beheading risks.

In places (even here in Europe) where people tend to by default assume good English speakers to be American, I get better treatment by managing to convey that I'm not.

Plenty of Americans travel abroad pretending they're Canadians, large maple leaf flags on their coats and all...

I find this topic very interesting and have been thinking about it for a few years now since I'm now allowed to get British citizenship. A few other things which might be important: - The government and future possibility of US tax arrangements being implemented; - How war prone the country is because one might be under the obligation to be sent to a war theatre being a citizen (not sure about this, just me thinking out loud).

Any other bits?

Many nation-states impose not only conscription in wartime, but also universal conscription in peacetime for males of certain age. Some citizenships (e.g. Switzerland or Israel) would thus come with some pretty significant strings attached, buyer beware.

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