World's Strongest Passport Rows In 2024: Japan And Singapore Top Joint List Of Three European Countries

JAKARTA - For the first time, six countries simultaneously occupy the list of the strongest quarterly passport rankings in the world for early 2024, marking a passport rating reshuffle that can enjoy access without visas or visas -on-arrivals to various destination countries in the world.

Citizens of France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Singapore and Spain can enjoy visa-free access or visa-on-arrivals to 194 extraordinary destinations around the world, the highest number recorded since the Henley Passport Index issued by London-based Henley & Partners, began tracking global travel freedoms 19 years ago using exclusive data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA).

Asian countries such as Japan and Singapore have dominated the top spot over the past five years. However, the entry of European countries to the top five on the latest list is a win for Europe. Finland and Sweden are in second place with South Korea, with easy access to 193 destinations.

Next, there are Austria, Denmark, Ireland and the Netherlands in third place with 192 destinations, followed by Belgium, Luxembourg, Norway, Portugal and England in rank 4. Complementing the top five lists, there are Greece, Malta and Switzerland are ranked 5.

Meanwhile, Australia and New Zealand have increased in ranking and are now ranked 6th with the Czechs and Poland. Meanwhile, the United States and Canada are in seventh place, along with Hungary with visa-free access to 188 destinations.

Despite the rankings, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has again become the country with the highest index in the last 10 years, with its success adding 106 destinations to its visa-free score since 2014. Ranked, this rich country occupies its 11th position this year.

Christian H. Kaelin, chairman of Henley & Partners and passport index creator, said in a statement, although the general trend over the past two decades is greater freedom of travel, the global mobility gap between the top and bottom groups of the index is now wider than ever before.

"The average number of destinations accessible to visa-free tourists has almost doubled from 58 in 2006 to 111 in 2024," Kaelin said, quoted by CNN on February 1.

"However, the top-ranked countries can now travel to 166 visa-free destinations much more than Afghanistan, which is at the bottom and only has access to 28 countries without visas", he said.

Above Afghanistan, respectively from below there is Syria which only has visa-free access to 29 countries, Iraq with 31 access and Pakistan with 34 accesses.

It is known, the Henley & Partners list is one of several indexes created by financial companies to determine global passport rankings based on the access they provide to their citizens.