The Most Powerful Passports in 2024

Published by FareCompare on August 19, 2024

Money might not be able to buy you happiness, but powerful passports can get you something even better: visa-free travel around the world.

So, what's the most powerful passport on the planet these days? If you guessed Singapore, you'd be right! A quarterly ranking of passports with the most international clout has just been released and the results are in.

For almost two decades, the Henley Passport Index – created by London-based global citizenship and residence advisory firm Henley & Partners – has tracked global freedoms in 227 countries and territories worldwide. Their reports are crafted using exclusive data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA).

Following Singapore, the other countries that enjoy a wide range of visa-free travel are: Japan, Germany, France, Italy, and Spain. All of them jointly hold the number two spot – citizens of these countries enjoy visa-free travel to 192 destinations.

Ranking in third? South Korea, Sweden, Finland, Austria, Ireland, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands, all of which have the privilege of visa-free entry to 191 destinations.

The UK ranks fourth – back in 2014 it shared the top spot alongside the United States – together with New Zealand, Norway, Belgium, Denmark and Switzerland.

Australia and Portugal share the number five spot (189 destinations) while the United States dropped down to eighth place, with visa-free access to a modest 186 destinations.

However, there's another side to the coin that comes with its own challenges. For example, Afghanistan has long ranked as the world’s weakest passport by the index, but now its citizens can only travel to 26 countries without a visa – the lowest score recorded in the index’s history.

Henley & Partners’ list is one of several indexes created by financial firms to rank global passports according to the access they provide to their citizens.

Arton Capital’s Passport Index takes into consideration the passports of 193 United Nations member countries and six territories: Taiwan, Macao, Hong Kong, Kosovo, Palestine, and the Vatican. Territories annexed to other countries are excluded. It’s updated in real time throughout the year, but its data is gathered by close monitoring of individual governments’ portals.

Arton’s Global Passport Power Rank 2024 puts the United Arab Emirates in the top spot, with a visa-free/visa-on-arrival score of 179. As for second place, that’s held by Spain (178), while France, Germany, Italy Netherlands, Luxembourg, Austria and Switzerland each have a score of 177 and are jointly ranked in third place.

The Most Powerful Passports: 2024 Henley Passport Index

1. Singapore (195 destinations)
2. France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain (192)
3. Austria, Finland, Ireland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, South Korea, Sweden (191)
4. Belgium, Denmark, New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland, United Kingdom (190)
5. Australia, Portugal (189)
6. Greece, Poland (188)
7. Canada, Czechia, Hungary, Malta (187)
8. United States (186)
9. Estonia, Lithuania, United Arab Emirates (185)
10. Iceland, Latvia, Slovakia, Slovenia (184)