Henley & Partners has revealed its ranking for the most powerful passports in 2023. For the fifth year running, Japan crowns the Henley Passport Index, which is based on data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA).
It is the original ranking of all the worldโs passports according to the number of destinations their holders can access without a prior visa. Japanese citizens are now able to visit an astonishing 193 destinations out of 227 around the world visa-free, while South Koreans and Singaporeans, whose countries are tied in 2nd place on the index, enjoy a visa-free/visa-on-arrival score of 192. The UK and the US remain in 6th and 7th places, with scores of 187 and 186, respectively, and it appears increasingly unlikely that either country will ever regain the top spot on the index which they jointly held nearly a decade ago in 2014.
The Henley Passport Index measures visa-free access to 227 destinations across the world, which of course makes it an extremely useful tool for travellers.
Dr Christian H. Kaelin, Chairman of Henley & Partners
With global travel now at around 75% of pre-pandemic levels, those with the opportunity to do so appear to be embracing what has been termed โrevenge travelโ. But deeper analysis of the index reveals the darker side to this optimistic picture. Afghanistan remains firmly at the bottom of the index, with a score of just 27 โ 166 fewer visa-free destinations than Japan, which represents the widest global mobility gap in the indexโs 18-year history.
Most useful passport in 2023
- Japan ๐ฏ๐ต (access to 193 destinations)
- Singapore ๐ธ๐ฌ, South Korea ๐ฐ๐ท (192)
- Germany ๐ฉ๐ช, Spain ๐ช๐ธ (190)
- Finland ๐ซ๐ฎ, Italy ๐ฎ๐น, Luxembourg ๐ฑ๐บ (189)
- Austria ๐ฆ๐น, Denmark ๐ฉ๐ฐ, Netherlands ๐ณ๐ฑ, Sweden ๐ธ๐ช (188)
- France ๐ซ๐ท, Ireland ๐ฎ๐ช, Portugal ๐ต๐น, United Kingdom ๐ฌ๐ง (187)
- Belgium ๐ง๐ช, Czech Republic ๐จ๐ฟ, New Zealand ๐ณ๐ฟ, Norway ๐ณ๐ด, Switzerland ๐จ๐ญ, United States ๐บ๐ธ (186)
- Australia ๐ฆ๐บ, Canada ๐จ๐ฆ, Greece ๐ฌ๐ท, Malta ๐ฒ๐น (185)
- Hungary ๐ญ๐บ, Poland ๐ต๐ฑ (184)
- Lithuania ๐ฑ๐น, Slovakia ๐ธ๐ฐ (183)
Least useful passports in 2023
- Afghanistan ๐ฆ๐ซ (27)
- Iraq ๐ฎ๐ถ (29)
- Syria ๐ธ๐พ (30)
- Pakistan ๐ต๐ฐ (32)
- Yemen ๐พ๐ช (34)
- Somalia ๐ธ๐ด (35)
- Palestinian Territory ๐ต๐ธ, Nepal ๐ณ๐ต (38)
- North Korea ๐ฐ๐ต (40)
- Libya ๐ฑ๐พ (41)