Most Powerful Passports: Which country takes the top spot?

The most recent 2024 passport index has just been released by Henley & Partners and according to the list, Singapore has the most powerful passport in the world with its citizens able to visit 195 visa-free travel destinations out of 227 around the world.

France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Spain all tied second for most powerful, with its citizens able to visit 194 visa-free travel destinations out of 227 around the world.

Each year, Henley & Partners releases their Passport Index, which essentially ranks the travel documents from all the different countries in the world and determines their power.

By ‘power’, the index refers to the ranking of all the world’s passports according to the number of destinations their holders can access without a prior visa.

According to the factsheet:

“the index’s scoring system was developed to give users a practical, and reliable overview of their passport’s power. Each passport is scored on the total number of destinations that the holder can access visa-free. For each travel destination, if no visa is required, then a score of 1 is allocated for that passport. This also applies if passport holders can obtain a visa on arrival, a visitor’s permit, or an electronic travel authority (ETA) upon entry.”

South Africa’s passport comes in at number 52.

According to this position, South African passport holders can travel to 108 countries visa-free.

TOP 5 COUNTRIES ON THE LIST

According to the latest rankings, here are the most powerful passports in the world:

CountryRankAccessSingapore1195France2194Germany2194Italy2194Japan2194Spain2194Austria3193Finland3193Ireland3193Luxembourg3193Netherlands3193South Korea3193Sweden3193Belgium4192Denmark4192United Kingdom4192Norway5191Portugal5191Switzerland5191