Most Powerful Passports: Singapore at Top, Here's Why India is Climbing Up & US, Japan Sliding Down Rankings

For five years, Japan was sitting at the top spot on the Henley Passport Index, measures global travel freedom in terms of visa-free access to countries. However, Japan has been knocked off the top spot for the first time in five years and bumped into third place.

Singapore is now the most powerful passport in the world, with its citizens able to visit 192 travel destinations out of 227 around the world visa-free, according to the latest ranking based on the data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA).

The citizens of Singapore can visit 192 travel destinations out of 227 around the world visa-free.

Other Countries in the List

While Asia has for long dominated the top leaderboard in the Henley Passport Index, Europe is bouncing back. Germany, Italy, and Spain all move up into second place with visa-free access to 190 destinations.

Meanwhile, the Japanese passport holders join six other nations- Austria, Finland, France, Luxembourg, South Korea, and Sweden in the third place with access to 189 destinations without a prior visa.

The UK has finally turned the corner after a six-year decline, jumping up two places on the latest ranking to the fourth place.

The US, on the other hand, continues its now decade-long slide down the index, plummeting a further two places to the eighth spot with access to just 184 destinations visa-free. Both the UK and the US jointly held 1st place on the index nearly 10 years ago in 2014 but have been on a downward trajectory ever since.

Afghanistan remains entrenched at the bottom of the index, with a visa-free score of just 27.

How is the Ranking Measured?

The Henley Passport Index compares the visa-free access of 199 passports to 227 travel destinations, the website of the company stated.

On a fixed day each year, Henley and Partners receives data from the International Air Transport Authority (IATA), which forms the basis for the passport ranking.

If a passport requires no visa for a travel destination, then a score with value of 1 is created for that passport. Similarly, the score is also given as one can obtain a visa on arrival, a visitor’s permit or an electronic travel authority while entering the destination.

The passports for which a visa is required or where a citizen has to obtain a government-approved electronic visa before departure, a score with value of 0 is assigned. This also includes cases where pre-departure government approval for a visa on arrival is required.

Therefore, the total score for each country and its passport resembles the number of destinations for which no visa or permit is required.

India Rises by 5 spots

India has significantly improved its passport ranking in the index by rising 5 spots from last year. It is currently at the 80th position in the latest passport ranking.

Indians can travel to 57 destinations completely visa free or through visa-on-arrival.

However, an Indian passport holder require a visa to enter 177 destinations across the globe including in countries like US, China, Japan, Russia, and the entire European Union.

Indians has visa-free access and visa-on-arrival to 57 destinations including countries like Indonesia, Thailand, Rwanda, Jamaica, Hong Kong, Dominica, Maldives and Sri Lanka.

Global Trends

Some of the recent global trends are as follows:

1. The general trend shows that the countries have been moving towards greater travel freedom, as the average number of destinations travellers are able to access visa-free nearly doubling from 58 in 2006 to 109 in 2023.
2. The global mobility gap between those at the top- Singapore and bottom- Afghanistan of the index is now wider than it has ever been at 165.
3. The UAE has jumped from 56th to 12th position over the past 10 years after adding an impressive 107 destinations to its visa-free score since 2013.
4. Ukraine and China are also among the Top 10 countries with the most improved rankings over the past decade.
5. The Top 20 ‘most open’ countries are all small island nations or African states, except for Cambodia.
6. There are 12 countries that are completely open to all passports and four that don’t allow anyone in visa-free.
7. US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Japan have all either slid down the ranking or remained in the same place as their openness stagnates.