Every country has its own passport and the ‘power’ that each country’s passport holds varies. The Passport Index provides with a ranking of passports according to the power that they hold. This power is defined by how many countries will let you in without requiring a visa. As expected, the British and American passports enjoy the top spot on the list whereas, the Palestinian passport along with South Sudanese enjoy the last spot.
So, how does it work? The score is based on ‘visa free score’ basically. Each passport gets points for each visa free country that the holder can visit or is allowed to obtain a visa upon arrival. This allows for ranking the passports using Passport Power Rank. The Passport Power Rank is directly proportional to the Visa Free Score.
The country list has been based on the 193 UN member countries and 6 territories (Kosovo, Macao etc.) bringing the total to 199. Territories that are annexed to other countries such as French Polynesia, Norfolk Island etc. have been excluded. Data for this ranking has been obtained from sources that are publicly available while also utilizing the information that has been shared by agencies working for the government.
The top 20 countries according to their passports are as follows:
- United Kingdom
- United States of America
- South Korea
- Germany
- France
- Italy
- Sweden
- Singapore
- Japan
- Finland
- Denmark
- Luxembourg
- Netherlands
- Switzerland
- Canada
- Hungary
- Ireland
- Belgium
- Portugal
- Norway
You can check out the complete list over here.
