World’s strongest passports in 2024: Japan, Singapore, France, Italy

Six international locations have earned the title of essentially the most highly effective passports in 2024 — with all of them granting visa-free journey to 194 out of 227 locations.

4 EU member states now share crown with Singapore and Japan because the primary passport within the quarterly Henley Passport Index. They’re: Spain, Germany, France and Italy.

The 2 Asian international locations have dominated the index previously 5 years.

In second place are international locations like South Korea, Finland and Sweden with visa-free entry to 193 locations. Denmark, Eire, Netherlands and Austria got here in third. The UK has risen two ranks to fourth. 

Australia and New Zealand took sixth place, whereas the U.S. retains its seventh place, in keeping with Henley’s rankings.

The 19-year-old world passport rating was performed based mostly on information supplied by the Worldwide Air Transport Authority, or IATA, which ranks the world’s passports based mostly on the variety of locations their holders can entry and not using a prior visa.

The final pattern proven within the rankings has been towards extra journey freedom, with the common variety of locations that vacationers can entry visa-free almost doubling from 58 in 2006 to 111 in 2024, stated Christian H. Kaelin, chairman of Henley & Companions. 

That stated, he famous that the worldwide mobility hole between these on the prime and backside of the index has grow to be “wider than ever.”

For one, the very best ranked passports permit journey to 166 extra locations and not using a visa in comparison with Afghanistan, which has entry to solely 28 international locations and is final within the rating.  

The United Arab Emirates has been the “biggest climber” of the index over the past decade, leaping from fifty fifth in 2014 to the eleventh place, the report acknowledged.

Different notable enhancements in mobility embody Ukraine and China, which have climbed two ranks every previously 12 months. China now locations 62nd on the index, whereas Ukraine is now in thirty second place.