There are also many articles (such as in Geoworld magazine, for example) written on describing the reasons why particular countries are listed as having most strongest passports on various top-lists.
Moreover, according to the Henley passport index, Google search results also show that Asian countries mostly dominated the most powerful passport top-list at the start of 2019. However, there are some particular resources on the world wide web which have different results for the same year.
About the passport index
Historically, the passport index concept was created by Dr. Christian H. Kaelin, Chairman of Henley and Partners, who based their evaluations on the Henley passport index calculations. These calculations were based on the amount of countries or destinations to where people can travel without visa. Such countries are referred to as visa-free travel countries.
However, there are also other indexes created by financial companies to rank global passports, according to the visa-free travel access. For example, Henley passport index in particular, is based on data provided by the IATA, while covering 199 passports as well as 227 travel destinations in total. Today, it is updated in real time throughout the year according to the visa policy changes.
Henley passport index evaluations for 2019
In this regard, cnn.com published a list of the most powerful passports in the world. The countries in this topfive list were listed as follows:
- Japan, Singapore (visa-free travel to 189 destinations);
- Italy, Denmark and Luxembourg (visa-free travel to 186 destinations);
- France, Sweden and Spain (visa-free travel to 185 destinations);
- Austria, Portugal, Netherlands and Switzerland (visa-free travel to 184 destinations);
- Belgium, Greece, Canada, Ireland, Norway, UK and US (visa-free travel to 183 destinations).
Other countries, which are not on the topfive list, however, still have more than 170 visa-free destinations available are:
- Malta (visa-free travel to 182 destinations);
- Czech Republic (visa-free travel to 181 destinations);
- Australia, Iceland, Lithuania, New Zealand (visa-free travel to 180 destinations);
- Latvia, Slovenia and Slovakia (visa-free travel to 179 destinations).
Other passport indexes
Some other passport indexes include Arton capital’s passport index, which is used to evaluate the passports of 193 UN member states and six territories such as Taiwan, Macau, Hong Kong, Kosovo, Vatican and the Palestinian territory. This index put the UAE on top in 2019 score with 173 countries in total having a visa-free access. UAE was followed by Luxembourg, Finland and Spain with 168 countries. Then came Denmark, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Austria, Switzerland, South Corea and Japan, Ireland, the U.S.A. with scores of 167 countries.
World’s strongest passports toplist
According to the passportindex.org, when it comes to ranking passports by their mobility score in terms of visa free-travel, there are two categories which can be highlighted while evaluating passport index: having residency by investment or having citizenship by investment. Also, this ranking has three more divisions: visa-free ranking, visa on arrival and visa required countries ranking. This all data is included while calculating the average rank, average mobility score and average mobility score.
Therefore, within the framework of residency by investment, top five strongest passports in the world is the following:
- Spain – passport power rank 2 (125 visa-free rankining in 2019);
- Portugal – passport power rank 3 (124 visa-free rankining in 2019);
- Ireland – passport power rank 3 (120 visa-free rankining in 2019);
- U.S.A. – passport power rank 3 (117 visa-free rankining in 2019);
- Singapore – passport power rank 4 (127 visa-free rankining in 2019).
On the other hand, within the framework of citizenship by investment, top five strongest passports in the world is as follows:
- Malta – passport power rank 4 (124 visa-free rankining in 2019);
- Cyprus – passport power rank 8 (122 visa-free rankining in 2019);
- Bulgaria – passport power rank 10 (116 visa-free rankining in 2019);
- St. Kitts and Nevis – passport power rank 21 (103 visa-free rankining in 2019);
- Antigu and Barbuda – passport power rank 24 (100 visa-free rankining in 2019).
Other rankings
Economictimes.indiatimes.com revealed that ultimately Japan has the world’s most powerful passport in 2019, according to the Henley passport index for the already mentioned reason – as the country has access to 190 countries in total. On the contrary, Singapore offers access to only 189 jurisdictions.
Also, according to this list, in 2019, 27 countries were in the top 10 positions on the list. 20 countries on the list are located in Europe. However, only three countries are located in Asia. Germany and France both have access to 188 countries. Then comes Denmark, Italy, Sweden and Finland as these countries have access to 187 countries. Spain and Luxembourg have access to 186 countries in total. Therefore, these two countries occupy the 5th place on the most powerful passport toplist.