[en] We calculate persistent current of one-dimensional rings of fermions neglecting the spin degrees of freedom considering only nearest-neighbor Coulomb interactions with different electron fillings in both ordered and disordered cases. We treat the interaction exactly and find eigenenergies by exact diagonalization of many-body Hamiltonian and compute persistent current by numerical derivative method. We also determine Drude weight to estimate the conducting nature of the system. From our numerical results, we obtain a metal–insulator transition in half-filled case with increasing correlation strength U but away from half-filling no such transition is observed even for large U. - Highlights: • An exact analysis is given for interacting rings with spinless fermions. • MI transition is obtained at half-filling. • Conducting properties are estimated by calculating Drude weight.