Greece’s passport is among the most powerful passports in the world, according to a new report, giving its citizens access to 188 countries.
The ranking puts Greece on par with Poland and above the USA in the latest Henley Passport Index, a quarterly report that compares the visa-free access of 199 different passports to 227 travel destinations. The report is prepared by Henley & Partners, the London-based advisory firm that specializes in global citizenship and residence.
The Singapore passport which grants access to 195 destinations around the world visa-free tops the list of the most powerful passports.
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 most powerful passports for 2024
1. Singapore (195 destinations)
2. France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain (192)
3. Austria, Finland, Ireland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, South Korea, Sweden (191)
4. Belgium, Denmark, New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland, United Kingdom (190)
5. Australia, Portugal (189)
6. Greece, Poland (188)
7. Canada, Czechia, Hungary, Malta (187)
8. United States (186)
9. Estonia, Lithuania, United Arab Emirates (185)
10. Iceland, Latvia, Slovakia, Slovenia (184)
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.”
Henley & Partners has also published a new index called the Henley Openness Index, which looks into the relationship between a country’s openness to foreigners and its own citizens’ travel freedom.
The top twenty “most open” countries on this Index are all small island nations or African states, except Cambodia.
Twelve completely open countries offer visa-free or visa-on-arrival entry to all 198 other passports in the world. These are: Burundi, Comoro Islands, Djibouti, Guinea-Bissau, Maldives, Micronesia, Mozambique, Rwanda, Samoa, Seychelles, Timor-Leste, and Tuvalu.