Singapore

Which country in the world has the most powerful passport?Hint: this is not America


Posted: Jul 24, 2023 2:07pm EST

The Singapore passport now has the most powerful “passport power” in the world.

Singapore’s travel document has officially overtaken Japan, which topped the list for the past five years, as the most powerful passport, according to the latest Henley Passport Index. The United States dropped further down the rankings to tie for eighth.

Henry’s passport…

The Singapore passport now has the most powerful “passport power” in the world.

Singapore’s travel document has officially overtaken Japan, which topped the list for the past five years, as the most powerful passport, according to the latest Henley Passport Index. The United States dropped further down the rankings to tie for eighth.

Henley’s passport ranking methodology uses data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA), one of the world’s largest travel information databases, and assigns points based on a passport’s ability to allow visa-free travel to a destination. (The U.S. State Department website states that the ability to travel visa-free to countries is important because it can add to a tourist or business stay, and can be bilateral or unilateral.) Each country’s passport grants a point for each place a person can travel, including countries where a person can obtain a visitor’s permit or electronic travel authorization (ETA) upon arrival.

The ranking of passports is as follows:

So, what makes Singapore travel documents the number one? Anyone holding a Singaporean passport can travel visa-free to 192 of 227 travel destinations around the world, the index said.

The next best passports are the European countries Germany, Italy and Spain, which are tied for second, and holders of passports can travel visa-free to 190 destinations.

In the 2014 Henley Index Rankings, the US passport is tied for the first place in the world and is currently tied for eighth with the Lithuanian passport. The United States tied for seventh place with 186 points last year, and tied for seventh place with 185 points in the Henry Index in 2021.

So why did the US passport slip?

“The story is simple — the U.S. has more or less stagnated and has fallen behind,” Greg Lindsay, chief global strategist and urban technology fellow at the Jacobs Institute at Cornell Tech, said of the report. “While the US’s absolute score has actually risen over the past decade, the US has been steadily overtaken by rivals such as South Korea, Japan and Singapore. The US’s continued slide in the rankings – and is unlikely to regain the top spot anytime soon – is a warning to neighboring Canada and the rest of the English-speaking world.”



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