The world’s most powerful passports for 2024 so far

What’s red on the outside, purple on the inside, and grants you access to 195 destinations around the world visa-free?

It’s the Singapore passport, and it’s just been named the world’s most powerful travel document in a quarterly ranking of the passports with the most international clout.

For the past 19 years, the Henley Passport Index, created by London-based global citizenship and residence advisory firm Henley & Partners, has been tracking global freedoms in 227 countries and territories around the world, using exclusive data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA).

The next passports to come close to Singapore’s global swag are those of Japan, Germany, France, Italy and Spain, which jointly hold the No.2 spot and whose citizens can enjoy visa-free travel to 192 destinations.

Then, at third place in the ranking, come South Korea, Sweden, Finland, Austria, Ireland, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, all of which have the privilege of seamless jaunts to 191 destinations.

The UK, which in the bygone days of 2014 held the top spot jointly with the United States, is in fourth place (190 destinations), alongside New Zealand, Norway, Belgium, Denmark and Switzerland.

Australia and Portugal share the No.5 spot (189 destinations) while the US has dropped down to eighth place, with visa-free access to a modest 186 destinations.

The widening gap

While Singapore’s magic number of 195 is a record high for both Singapore and the ranking, down at the other end of the scale, new lows are also being hit. Afghanistan has long been ranked the world’s weakest passport by the index, but now its citizens can only travel to 26 countries without a visa – the lowest score recorded in the index’s history of nearly two decades.

Christian Kaelin, chair of Henley & Partners, said in a statement, “The global average number of destinations travelers are able to access visa-free has nearly doubled from 58 in 2006 to 111 in 2024. However, the global mobility gap between those at the top and bottom of the index is now wider than it has ever been.”

Nearly five billion people will take to the skies this year, across 39 million flights, according to estimates by the IATA. However, the real cost of air travel has dropped by over a third in that time, says IATA director general Willie Walsh, with airlines’ profit per passenger now averaging out at just over $6 per passenger, “barely enough for a single espresso in a typical hotel café.”

Cityscape of Tallinn, Estonia, EU 
Alexander Spatari/Moment RF/Getty Images
African mobility

Africa’s richest man, Nigerian-born Aliko Dangote, complained at the recent Africa CEO Forum in Kigali that he needed 35 visas to travel around the continent - way more than a European visitor.

Exclusive new research published in Tuesday’s Henley & Partner’s report compares Schengen visa rejection rates for African applicants to those from other regions. The findings, by Mehari Taddele Maru, Adjunct Professor at the School of Transnational Governance at the European University Institute, and Johns Hopkins University in Italy, were that around 30% of African Schengen visa applicants were rejected, compared to around 10% worldwide. Said Maru, “The European visa system clearly demonstrates a pre-determined bias against African applicants who face a triple whammy: lower passport power, higher visa rejection rates, and consequently, limited economic mobility.”