UK moves to top five in new rankings of the world's most powerful passports

19 July 2023 , 13:01

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This year's passport power rankings have been unveiled (Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Brits are now the proud owners of the fourth most powerful passport in the world after a change in fortunes.

For six years following the Brexit referendum the iconic travel document had been in decline according to the Henley Passport Index, which measures how many countries different citizens can visit visa-free.

According to the residence experts "the UK appears to have finally turned the corner after a six-year decline, jumping up two places on the latest ranking to 4th place — a position it last held in 2017".

UK passport holders can now visit 188 out of 227 locations looked at by Henley, as can joint fourth placed countries Denmark, Ireland and the Netherlands.

The 188 destinations include countries Brits can visit with no passport, by obtaining either a visa, a visitor’s permit or an electronic travel authority on arrival. Importantly these visa-types require no pre-departure government approval, because of the specific visa-waiver programs in place.

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The declining fortunes of the British passport seems to have finally turned around (Getty Images)

For the first time in five years Japan has be knocked off the top spot, falling to third place in the rankings, which are based on exclusive and official data from the International Air Transport Association.

Singapore is now officially the most powerful passport in the world, with its citizens able to visit 192 travel destinations out of 227 around the world visa-free.

Germany, Italy, and Spain all move up into second place with visa-free access to 190 destinations, and Japanese passport holders join those of six other nations — Austria, Finland, France, Luxembourg, South Korea, and Sweden — in third place with access to 189 destinations without a prior visa.

The US, on the other hand, continues its now decade-long slide down the index, plummeting a further two places to eighth spot with access to just 184 destinations visa-free.

Both the UK and the US jointly held first place on the index nearly 10 years ago in 2014 but have been on a downward trajectory ever since.

Afghanistan remains entrenched at the bottom of the Henley Passport Index, with a visa-free access score of just 27, followed by Iraq (score of 29), and Syria (score of 30) — the three weakest passports in the world.

The general trend over the history of the 18-year-old ranking has been towards greater travel freedom, with the average number of destinations travellers are able to access visa-free nearly doubling from 58 in 2006 to 109 in 2023.

The global mobility gap between those at the top and bottom of the index is now wider than it has ever been, with top-ranked Singapore able to access 165 more destinations visa-free than Afghanistan.

According to Dr Christian Kaelin, chairman of Henley & Partners, only eight countries worldwide have less visa-free access today than they did a decade ago.

Most others have been more successful in securing greater travel freedom for their citizens, meaning more people globally can access more countries.

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The US passport has fallen in the rankings again (AFP via Getty Images)

"The UAE has added an impressive 107 destinations to its visa-free score since 2013, resulting in a massive leap of 44 places in the ranking over the past 10 years from 56th to 12th position," he said. "This is almost double the next biggest climber, Colombia, which has enjoyed a jump of 28 places in the ranking to sit in 37th spot. Ukraine and China are also among the Top 10 countries with the most improved rankings over the past decade."

Of the countries sitting in the Top 10, the US has seen the smallest increase in its score on the index over the past decade, securing visa-free access to just 12 additional destinations between 2013 and 2023.

Singapore, by comparison, has increased its score by 25, pushing it five places up the ranking over the past 10 years to the number one spot.

The Top 20 ‘most open’ countries are all small island nations or African states, except for Cambodia, according to the rankings.

There are 12 completely open countries that offer visa-free or visa-on-arrival entry to all 198 passports in the world and are: Burundi, Comoro Islands, Djibouti, Guinea-Bissau, Maldives, Micronesia, Mozambique, Rwanda, Samoa, Seychelles, Timor-Leste, and Tuvalu.

At the bottom of the Henley Openness Index, four countries score zero, permitting no visa-free access for any passport: namely, Afghanistan, North Korea, Papua New Guinea, and Turkmenistan.

Milo Boyd