Six countries have been named the most powerful passports of 2024, with all granting visa-free travel to 194 out of 227 destinations.
Four EU member states now share the crown with Singapore and Japan as the world's number one passport Henley Passport Index Quarterly. They are: Spain, Germany, France and Italy.
The two Asian countries dominated the index in the past five years.
In second place are countries such as South Korea, Finland and Sweden with visa-free access to 193 destinations. Denmark, Ireland, the Netherlands and Austria came in third place. The United Kingdom rose two places to fourth place.
Australia and New Zealand ranked sixth, while the United States maintained seventh place, according to the Henley classification.
The global ranking of 19-year-old passports was made based on data provided by the International Air Transport Association, or International Air Transport Association (IATA), which ranks global passports based on the number of destinations their holders can access without a prior visa.
Christian H. said: Cailin, Chairman of Henley & Partners, said the general trend highlighted in the rankings was towards greater travel freedom, with the average number of destinations that travelers can reach without a visa doubling from 58 in 2006 to 111 in 2024.
However, he noted that the global mobility gap between those at the top and bottom of the index is “wider than ever before”.
For example, the top-rated passports allow travel to 166 more destinations without a visa compared to Afghanistan, which has access to only 28 countries and ranks last in the rankings.
The report stated that the UAE was the “biggest climber” in the index over the past decade, jumping from 55th place in 2014 to 11th place.
Other notable improvements in mobility include Ukraine and China, which both moved up two places last year. China now ranks 62nd on the index, while Ukraine now ranks 32nd.
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/cloudfront-us-east-2.images.arcpublishing.com/reuters/X4EJQAYGUNLKTHBO7CAN7JTH44.jpg "The Asian Security Summit kicks off amid tensions between the United States and China")