MAKING A DIFFERENCE

DestinationsThe top three countries on the latest Henley Passport Index are all from Asia.

Who holds the world’s most powerful passport in 2023?

By Travel Weekly Asia

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Jan 11, 2023

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Japanese citizens can visit the most destinations in the world visa-free.

Japanese citizens can visit the most destinations in the world visa-free. Photo Credit: Adobe Stock/margolana

For the fifth consecutive year, Japan ranks as the world’s most powerful passport on the Henley Passport Index. Japanese citizens can visit 193 destinations out of 227 visa-free. Singapore and South Korea are tied at second place, these two passports allowing access into 192 destinations visa-free.

Germany and Spain both come in third, with visa-free access to 190 destinations. The UK and the US remain in 6th and 7th places, with scores of 187 and 186, respectively. Afghanistan still remains at the bottom of the Henley Passport Index, with a score of just 27.

Rank	Country	Visa-free score
1	Japan	193
2	Singapore South Korea	192
3	Germany Spain	190
4	Finland Italy Luxembourg	189
5	Austria Denmark Netherlands Sweden	188
6	France Ireland Portugal United Kingdom	187
7	Belgium Czech Republic New Zealand Norway Switzerland United States	186
8	Australia Canada Greece Malta	185
9	Hungary Poland	184
10	Lithuania Slovakia	183

Chairman of Henley & Partners, Dr. Christian H. Kaelin, says the firm's latest research into the link between visa-free travel and global economic access unpacks what passport power means in concrete financial terms. "For global citizens, a better measure of economic mobility and fiscal opportunity afforded by their passports is to look at the percentage share of global GDP accessible to them visa-free.”

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