What Is the Most Powerful Passport in the World?

Caroline Morse Teel is the Managing Editor for SmarterTravel Media. Follow her on Instagram @TravelWithCaroline.

Caroline joined Boston-based SmarterTravel in 2011 after living in Ireland, London, and Manhattan. She's traveled to all seven continents, jumped out of planes, and bungeed off bridges in the pursuit of a good story. She loves exploring off-the-beaten path destinations, anything outdoorsy, and all things adventure.

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The world’s most powerful passports were just announced, and the United States didn’t make the top five. Each year, Henley & Partners, a residence and citizenship planning firm based in London, utilizes data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA), to create The Henley Passport Index. The Henley Passport Index ranks the relative power of passports by the number of destinations a country’s passport holders can visit without needing to get a visa in advance.

The 2024 index has six countries tied for the title of the most powerful passport in the world: France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Singapore, and Spain. Citizens of these countries can travel visa-free (or get a visa on arrival) to 194 destinations around the world. Japan and Singapore have held the top spot for the past year, but this year, they are joined by four European countries. This is the highest level of passport freedom the survey has recorded since it began 19 years ago.

United States passport holders can only visit 188 countries without obtaining a visa in advance, putting it as the number seventh most powerful passport in the world. The United States’ power position remains stable, as it was also in seventh place in 2023.

The Most Powerful Passports in the World

These are the most powerful passports in the world, according to the Henley Passport Index.

Countries	Rank	Number of Countries Eligible to Visit Visa-Free or With Visa-on-Arrival
France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Singapore, Spain	1	194
Finland, South Korea, Sweden	2	193
Austria, Denmark, Ireland, Netherlands	3	192
Belgium, Luxembourg, Norway, Portugal, United Kingdom	4	191
Greece, Malta, Switzerland	5	190
Australia, Czechia, New Zealand, Poland	6	189
Canada, Hungary, United States	7	188
Estonia, Lithuania	8	187
Latvia, Slovakia, Slovenia	9	186
Iceland	10	185

See the full list of the world’s most powerful passports here.

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