Produced by: Hitansh Gaur
London-based Henley & Partners are ranking the world’s passports for the past eighteen years with data coming from International Air Transport Association (IATA). Henley Passport Index is updated on a quarterly basis and the recent rankings have a big change.
In the recent Henley Passport Index, Singapore has surpassed Japan as the country with the world’s strongest passport. Singapore provided 192 visa free destinations for its citizens. The nation granted citizenship to 23,100 people last year.
The second position on the chart determining the world’s strongest passport is shared by three European countries – Germany, Italy and Spain. Each of them gives their citizens access to 190 visa-free destinations.
After a dominance of five years, Japan has slipped two places from the top to the third rank with access to 189 visa-free countries. Japan shares the third place with six other countries – Austria, Finland, France, Luxembourg, South Korea and Sweden.
The United Kingdom ranked fourth in the list along with Denmark, Ireland and Netherlands. Citizens of these countries have access to 188 visa-free destinations.
Henley Passport Index has ranked India at number 80. Indian citizens have access to 57 visa-free destinations.
The country known for terrorism and the recent economic crisis has been ranked at 100 in the list. Citizens of Pakistan can travel to just 33 countries without applying for a visa. China comes at number 63 with access to 80 countries.
Malaysia ranked 11th with access to 180 countries, Maldives was at 57 with access to 91 countries and Indonesia at 69 with access to 73 destinations. The other neighbour of India, Bhutan is at 84 with access to 53 countries while Nepal sits at 98 with access to just 38 countries.
USA, the world’s biggest economy, has been ranked as the country with the eighth strongest passport in the world. Americans can visit 184 countries without a visa.
Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria are ranked as the world’s weakest passports. The citizens of Afghanistan have access to just 27 visa-free destinations, followed by 29 for Iraq and 30 for Syria. Pakistan has the fourth weakest passport according to the index.