Singapore reclaimed its title as the world’s most powerful passport in the latest ranking published on the Henley Passport Index.
The ranking–published by London-based immigration consultancy–Henley & Partners, uses the data from the International Air Transport Association to rank 199 passports’ access to 227 travel destinations.
The Henley Passport Index compares the visa-free access of 199 different passports to 227 travel destinations. If no visa is required, then a score with value = 1 is created for that passport.
So having a Singapore passport also means getting visa-free entry to a record 195 global destinations.
France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and Spain drop to joint-2nd place, each with visa-free access to 192 destinations, and an unprecedented seven-nation cohort, each with access to 191 destinations without a prior visa — Austria, Finland, Ireland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, South Korea, and Sweden — now sit in 3rd place on the ranking, which is based on exclusive and official data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA).
The UK hangs onto 4th place along with Belgium, Denmark, New Zealand, Norway, and Switzerland, despite its visa-free destination score falling to 190. The US, on the other hand, continues its now decade-long slide down the index, dropping down to 8th spot, with access to just 186 destinations visa-free.
Also, the Canadian passport has become stronger than last year, ranking 7. However, the US has slipped to eighth spot; last year, it occupied the seventh position.
This is the first time Canada’s passport has ranked higher than the US’ in years. The two countries’ passports tied for sixth place in 2019, but before and after that, Canada ranked lower than the US. In 2014, the US shared the top spot with the UK.
The UAE makes it into the Top 10 for the first time, having added an impressive 152 destinations since the index’s inception in 2006 to achieve its current visa-free score of 185, and rising a remarkable 53 places in the ranking from 62nd to 9th position in the process.
India’s passport ranked 82nd on the list, with citizens allowed to travel to 58 countries without a visa, including popular destinations like Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand.
Interestingly, both China and Ukraine are among the Top 10 countries that have climbed the highest in the ranking over the past decade. Since 2014, China has jumped up 24 places from 83rd to 59th (with access to 85 destinations visa-free), while Ukraine has advanced by 23 spots, from 53rd to 30th, with its nationals able to visit 148 destinations without a prior visa. Russia, on the other hand, has fallen seven places over the past ten years, from 38th to 45th position (with visa-free access to just 116 destinations).
Commenting in the July 2024 edition of the Henley Global Mobility Report, Dr. Christian H. Kaelin, Chairman of Henley & Partners and the inventor of the passport index concept, says “the general trend over the past two decades has been towards greater travel freedom, with the global average number of destinations travelers are able to access visa-free nearly doubling from 58 in 2006 to 111 in 2024. However, the global mobility gap between those at the top and bottom of the index is now wider than it has ever been, with top-ranked Singapore able to access a record-breaking 169 more destinations visa-free than Afghanistan”.
