Passports yield a whole lot of power. For some, the little booklet of stamps can have you whizz through border control within the hour, while others with not-so-powerful passports are left queuing for hours just to get a visa.
But which country has the world’s most powerful passport? To find out, The Henley Passport Index looks at data from the International Air Transport Association every quarter and ranks global passports based on the number of countries they can be used to visit visa-free, and the latest rankings might be different from what you have in mind.
Singapore is now officially the most powerful passport in the world, with its citizens able to visit a total of 192 travel destinations out of 227 around the world visa-free. Beating the rest of the pack with two more destinations, Singaporeans are spoiled for choice when they plan for their next holiday.
At second place, there is a three-way tie between Germany, Italy, and Spain with visa-free access to 190 destinations, whereas 5-year defending champions Japan joins six other nations — Austria, Finland, France, Luxembourg, South Korea, and Sweden — in third place with access to 189 destinations without the need for a visa.
The weakest passport in the world is Afghanistan with a visa-free access score of just 27, followed by Iraq at 29 destinations, and Syria at 30.
Here are the top five most powerful passports in the world and the number of countries they can visit visa-free, according to the Henley Passport Index:
- Singapore (192)
- Japan (190)
= Germany
= Italy
= Spain - Japan (189)
= Austria
= Finland
= France
= Luxembourg
= South Korea
=Sweden - UK (188)
= Netherlands
= Ireland
= Denmark - Belgium (187)
= Czech Republic
= Malta
= New Zealand
= Norway
= Switzerland
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