9 Countries With the Most Powerful Passports in the World

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Happy woman wearing headphones and holding passport ready to travel with her luggage suitacase
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If you have limited experience traveling internationally, you may not realize that going to another country often isn’t as simple as flashing your passport at the customs gate. Most nations require some visitors to obtain a visa before crossing the border.

Whether you need a visa or can skip that step depends largely on the country that issued your passport. For instance, those with a passport from Afghanistan can access only 28 destinations — 12% of the world — without a visa, the smallest share of any country.

To determine which countries are on the other end of the spectrum — those with the most “powerful” passports — the annual Henley Passport Index looks at visa-free access for 199 different passports to 227 travel destinations. (It considers countries that offer visas on arrival as visa-free destinations.) Its rankings are based on exclusive data provided by the International Air Transport Authority.

According to the index, the following are the most useful passports, offering visa-free access to the most countries in the world. (Spoiler alert: You won’t find the U.S. passport here — it is in a three-way tie for seventh place and offers visa-free access to 188 destinations.)

Singapore

Singapore passport
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Number of travel destinations this country’s passport grants access to: 194

Singapore is a city, a country and an island, all rolled into one. Located near Malaysia in Southeast Asia, it is one of the world’s most prosperous nations, according to the CIA. Beyond a powerful economy, this country has a powerful passport that provides visa-free access to 194 destinations.

Japan

Japanese passport from Japan
yoshi0511 / Shutterstock.com

Number of travel destinations this country’s passport grants access to: 194

Japan ties with Singapore and four other countries as having the most useful passport in the world. It too will give holders easy admittance to 194 places around the globe. Could that be one reason why this island nation in East Asia is also a landing spot for many of the world’s superrich?

France

Passport of France over a map of Paris
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Number of travel destinations this country’s passport grants access to: 194

France, slightly smaller than Texas, offers its citizens a peerless passport good for easy travel to 194 global destinations. Workers here also get 30 days of paid vacation per year, so they probably have an easier time planning trips abroad than many of us. C’est la vie.

Germany

German passport from Germany
Ivan Semenovych / Shutterstock.com

Number of travel destinations this country’s passport grants access to: 194

Living in Germany comes with such perks as access to tuition-free universities. And if you’re a citizen, you can apply for one of the most powerful passports in the world; it provides visa-free access to 194 destinations.

Italy

Italian passport from Italy
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Number of travel destinations this country’s passport grants access to: 194

Italy attracts tourists from around the globe who flock to cities such as Venice, Naples and Rome. Residents of the Mediterranean nation who want to escape the crowds will find their Italian passport gains them easy access to 194 countries worldwide.

Spain

Spanish passport from Spain
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Number of travel destinations this country’s passport grants access to: 194

Home to more than 42 million people, Spain sits on Europe’s Iberian peninsula and has coastlines on both the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. The country had the distinction of being the most visited place in the world in 2021. All those travelers are undoubtedly good for the economy, but residents who are feeling overrun might want to pick up their passport and go on holiday themselves.

Finland

Finnish passport from Finland
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Number of travel destinations this country’s passport grants access to: 193

Given that they live somewhere consistently ranked as one of the happiest places on earth, Finnish people might not feel the need to leave their country. But if they do, their passport will give them plenty of options.

South Korea

South Korea passport
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Number of travel destinations this country’s passport grants access to: 193

The eastern Asian country of South Korea — officially called the Republic of Korea — is home to more than a powerhouse passport. It is also the headquarters of electronics company Samsung, which is poised to build the world’s largest semiconductor complex in the country. Once completed, it will manufacture critical electronics components to be used across the globe.

Sweden

Passport of Sweden
justit / Shutterstock.com

Number of travel destinations this country’s passport grants access to: 193

Sweden is an increasingly international country, with the share of its population born abroad jumping from 11.3% in 2000 to 20% in 2021. Many emigrate to the country for work from outside the European Union, including from India, Thailand and China. That’s made all the easier with a passport that offers visa-free travel to 193 other nations.

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