World’s strongest passports in 2023: How powerful is Indian passport? Mald

Japan has just been toppled by Singapore to become the nation having the world’s most powerful passport. In the latest passport power index released by Henley & Partners, Singapore has registered an impressive visa-free score of 192, which simply means the country’s citizens can travel to 192 destinations in the world without having the need to get a visa beforehand. 

The Henley & Partners passport index is based on data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA), and it ranks 199 passports worldwide.

Index dominated by Europeans

The second position on the index is collectively shared by Germany, Italy and Spain with a visa-free score of 190. Japan, which dominated the index for four straight years, has been knocked out to the third position this year. 

Now, its citizens, along with those from Austria, Finland, France, Luxemburg, South Korea and Sweden, have visa-free access to 189 countries. This shows that European powers are now dominating the passport index, outshining their Asian peers like Japan and South Korea.

US & UK on a downward trajectory

Both the United States and the United Kingdom have experienced a decline in their global ranking of visa-free travel since their prime days when they jointly held the top spot in 2014.

However, there seems to be a positive development for the UK as it has jumped two positions to reach the fourth position in the current rankings, a position it hasn’t held since 2017. 

On the other hand, the US continues to slide down, falling two more places to the eighth spot, offering visa-free access to only 183 destinations.

Here are the world’s best passports

1. Singapore (192 destinations)

2. Germany, Italy, Spain (190 destinations)

3. Austria, Finland, France, Japan, Luxembourg, South Korea, Sweden (189)

4. Denmark, Ireland, Netherlands, UK (188 destinations)

5. Belgium, Czech Republic, Malta, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Switzerland (187 destinations)

6. Australia, Hungary, Poland (186 destinations)

7. Canada, Greece (185 destinations)

8. Lithuania, United States (184 destinations)

9. Latvia, Slovakia, Slovenia (183 destinations)

10. Estonia, Iceland (182 destinations)

Where do India and other South Asian nations stand?

The Maldives continues to be the brightest spot in the South Asian region on the passport index, with its citizens enjoying either visa-on-demand or visa-free access to 91 destinations. 

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India is positioned at the second spot in the region, with a visa-free score of 57. Globally, India is at 80th position, a rank shared by Senegal and Togo.  

Country- rank (Visa-free score)

Maldives– 57  (91)

India– 80  (57)

Bhutan– 84 (53)

Sri Lanka– 95 (41)

Bangladesh– 96 (40)

Nepal– 98 (38)

Pakistan– 100  (33)

Afghanistan– 103  (27)

Worst passports

The Henley & Partners passport index places Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Pakistan on or beyond the 100th rank. Pakistan has scored a mere 33 points in the visa-free index, thus holding an embarrassing 100th position.

Syria and Iraq are placed at 101st and 102nd positions, with respective visa-free scores of 30 and 29. Afghanistan is placed at the last position at 103, with its citizens having visa-free access to 27 nations.