Six nations have earned the title of probably 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 nations have dominated the index up to now 5 years.
In second place are nations 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 response to Henley’s rankings.
The 19-year-old international passport rating was carried out primarily based on knowledge supplied by the Worldwide Air Transport Authority, or IATA, which ranks the world’s passports primarily based on the variety of locations their holders can entry with out a prior visa.
The final pattern proven within the rankings has been towards extra journey freedom, with the typical variety of locations that vacationers can entry visa-free almost doubling from 58 in 2006 to 111 in 2024, mentioned Christian H. Kaelin, chairman of Henley & Companions.
That mentioned, he famous that the worldwide mobility hole between these on the high and backside of the index has turn out to be “wider than ever.”
For one, the best ranked passports permit journey to 166 extra locations with out a visa in comparison with Afghanistan, which has entry to solely 28 nations and is final within the rating.
The United Arab Emirates has been the “biggest climber” of the index during the last decade, leaping from fifty fifth in 2014 to the eleventh place, the report said.
Different notable enhancements in mobility embrace Ukraine and China, which have climbed two ranks every up to now 12 months. China now locations 62nd on the index, whereas Ukraine is now in thirty second place.