You’ll often see rankings of the world’s most useful (or “powerful”) passports, in terms of the number of destinations that can be visited without a visa. The latest rankings have just been published, and the United States continues to slip…
The world’s most & least powerful passports
The latest Henley Passport Index has been published, which is based on data from the International Air Transportation Association (IATA), regarding the number of destinations that can be visited by travelers without a visa being required prior to travel.
With the updated list, here are the world’s top 10 most useful passports (there are actually some ties, as you can tell, so it’s really the 34 most useful passports):
- Singapore (visa free entry to 193 countries)
- South Korea (visa free entry to 190 countries)
- Japan (visa free entry to 189 countries)
- Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Spain, and Switzerland (visa free entry to 188 countries)
- Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Ireland, and Netherlands (visa free entry to 187 countries)
- Greece, Hungary, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, and Sweden (visa free entry to 186 countries)
- Australia, Czechia, Malta, and Poland (visa free entry to 185 countries)
- Croatia, Estonia, Slovakia, Slovenia, United Arab Emirates, and United Kingdom (visa free entry to 184 countries)
- Canada (visa free entry to 183 countries)
- Latvia and Liechtenstein (visa free entry to 182 countries)
Meanwhile here are the world’s 10 least useful passports (really the 17 least useful ones, due to ties):
- Afghanistan (visa free entry to 24 countries)
- Syria (visa free entry to 26 countries)
- Iraq (visa free entry to 29 countries)
- Yemen and Pakistan (visa free entry to 31 countries)
- Somalia (visa free entry to 33 countries)
- Nepal (visa free entry to 36 countries)
- North Korea and Bangladesh (visa free entry to 38 countries)
- Eritrea, Libya, and Palestine (visa free entry to 39 countries)
- Iran, Sri Lanka, and Sudan (visa free entry to 41 countries)
- Congo and South Sudan (visa free entry to 43 countries)
Where does the United States passport rank?
Some people might be surprised to see that the United States doesn’t rank on the list of the world’s 10 most powerful passports. It actually ranks in 12th place, tying with Malaysia, allowing visa free entry to 180 countries. That really makes it the world’s 37th(ish) most useful passport, given that the top 10 list actually consists of 34 different passports.
The United States has certainly fallen over the years in this regard, because back in 2014, the United States had the world’s most powerful passport. But now for the first time in decades, the United States doesn’t even rank in the top 10 when it comes to passport power.
What has contributed to that? In reality, it only takes policy changes in a couple of countries to trigger big ranking changes. Specifically, those with passports from the United States no longer get visa free access to Brazil (unlike nationals of many other countries), on reciprocity grounds. Furthermore, countries like Vietnam have increased the number of countries to which it offers visa-free entry (including many European Union countries), but the United States isn’t among them.
So I wouldn’t be surprised if the United States stays off the top 10 list in the long term, especially given how widely the principle of reciprocity is used for travel requirements, and the United States doesn’t exactly make visa free travel easy for nationals of many countries.
Bottom line
Updated rankings have been published regarding the most and least useful passports in the world. For the first time, the United States has fallen off the top 10 list, which isn’t too surprising, given the visa requirements the United States has for nationals of other countries. Meanwhile North Korea ranks higher than most might expect, though I guess the challenge there is whether you can get out of the country, rather than whether you can get into another country.
Are there any passport rankings that surprise you?