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LIST OF MOST POWERFUL AND WEAKEST PASSPORTS HIGHLIGHTS GLOBAL DISPARITIES
By Kelsey Ables
January 12, 2024 at 2:56 a.m. EST
Kosovo passports (rank: 68th) lie on a check-in counter at Pristina Airport on
Jan. 1. (Laura Hasani/Reuters)
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A ranking of the world’s most powerful passports released this week shows that
the global mobility gap is “wider than ever,” Henley & Partners, the firm behind
the list, said in a news release. Passports from the countries topping the list,
largely wealthy nations in Europe, have access to 190-plus destinations
visa-free, while countries at the bottom, typically low-income countries in the
Global South, have access to as few as 28, according to the rankings.
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The list, based on data from the International Air Transport Association,
highlights the realities of passport privilege: For some, a passport is a key to
the world, while for others, it’s a lock on it. Here are the rankings.
THE MOST POWERFUL PASSPORTS
Smooth, visa-free travel essentially means carrying a European passport or being
from one of a handful of high-income Asian countries, according to the rankings.
Four E.U. member states — France, Germany, Italy, and Spain — moved to the top
of the list this year, joining Japan and Singapore, economic powerhouses that
have dominated global passport rankings over the past five years. The United
States, which topped the list a decade ago, held its place at seventh, tied with
Canada and Hungary.
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Trevor Williams, former chief economist at Lloyds Bank, said in a statement that
the “overarching narrative that links greater economic performance with
visa-free access” is “once again powerfully highlighted” by the latest report.
1. France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Singapore and Spain: visa-free entry to 194
destinations.
2. Finland, South Korea and Sweden: visa-free entry to 193 destinations.
3. Austria, Denmark, Ireland and the Netherlands: visa-free entry to 192
destinations.
4. Belgium, Luxembourg, Norway, Portugal and the United Kingdom: visa-free
entry to 191 destinations.
5. Greece, Malta and Switzerland: visa-free entry to 190 destinations.
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THE LEAST POWERFUL PASSPORTS
Travel restrictions have decreased globally, with the average number of
destinations travelers can visit visa-free nearly doubling since 2006, according
to Henley & Partners, which advises wealthy people on residence and citizenship
by investment. But not all countries have benefited from this increased access,
and inequality between the wealthy and poorer countries has widened.|
On the newly released list, of five countries at the bottom, four are also among
the top 10 most impacted by terrorism, according to the Global Terrorism Index,
and all have a recent history of armed conflict.
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Dutch professors Henk van Houtum and Annelies van Uden liken visas to “paper
prisons” in a 2021 paper, writing that “affluent countries are excluding those
who are seen as an economic or security risk, notably the global poor.” Such
policies allow for what they call “a global aristocracy principally determined
by birth” to lock in “a global underclass, and from afar.”
1. Afghanistan: visa-free entry to 28 destinations.
2. Syria: visa-free entry to 29 destinations.
3. Iraq: visa-free entry to 31 destinations.
4. Pakistan: visa-free entry to 34 destinations.
5. Yemen: visa-free entry to 35 destinations.
THE PASSPORTS WITH THE MOST DRAMATIC SHIFTS
Changes in passport mobility happen when countries add or remove visa
requirements for travelers of other nationalities. Canada, for instance, opened
visa-free travel to 13 new countries last year, while the United Kingdom
announced it would impose visa requirements on Hondurans in response to an
uptick in asylum applications at the border.
The United Arab Emirates has seen the greatest shift in power in the past
decade, jumping from 55th to 11th, by adding a “impressive” 106 destinations to
the visa-free score, Henley & Partners said. China and Ukraine also saw
significant shifts, both gaining 21 destinations for visa-free entry over the
past 10 years.
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