Six countries now jointly have the most powerful passports in the world, according to the 2024 Henley Passport Index, while the UAE passport remains the bigger climber 10 years on.
France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Japan and Singapore share the top spot for the first time, as their citizens are able to visit 194 destinations out of 227 without a visa. That's 85.46 per cent of the world's destinations.
The 19-year-old annual index, which ranks all the world's passports according to the number of places their holders can travel to without a prior visa, is based on exclusive and official data from the International Air Transport Association.
For the past five years, Japan and Singapore have dominated first place, but this year the four EU member states have moved up to join them.
The index also found that the average number of destinations travellers have access to visa-free has nearly doubled since 2006, from 58 to 111.
South Korea joins Finland and Sweden in second place with visa-free travel to 193 destinations, while Austria, Denmark, Ireland and the Netherlands share third place with 192.
The rest of the top 10 is largely dominated by European countries, with the UK climbing two ranks to fourth position, with visa-free access to 191 destinations compared to 188 last year.
Australia and New Zealand sit in sixth place, while the US retains seventh place, with 189 and 188 destinations, respectively.
Ten years ago, the UK and US held first place on the index. This reflects a general decline in American and European influence, said journalist Misha Glenny, who added in the report that there is now a “jostling for power among the Asian big boys”.
The UAE passport has been the biggest climber on the index over the past decade and remains so in 2024. It has added 106 destinations to its visa-free score since 2014, moving from 55th to 11th position.
Ukraine and China are also among the top five countries with the most improved rankings over the past 10 years – the former is in 32nd place with 148 visa-free destinations and the latter is in 62nd with 85.
With passenger traffic set to double by 2024, according to IATA, the optimisation of airport processes will need to continue, said Frederic Leger, a senior vice president from the authority. Automated systems and digital passports are quickly being introduced around the world, from Finland to the UAE.
“Checking and verifying travel documents more often than not needs to be performed manually,” said Leger. “With the expected continued growth in air travel, this task needs to be automated to a much higher degree.”
Henley & Partners chairman Christian H Kaelin said that while the trend is heading towards greater travel freedom, the global mobility gap between those at the top and bottom of the rankings is now wider than ever.
“As we enter the new year, the top-ranked countries are now able to travel to a staggering 166 more destinations visa-free than Afghanistan, which sits at the bottom of the ranking with access to just 28 countries without a visa.”
This echoes findings published in the Henley Global Mobility Report 2024 Q1 earlier this month that showed visa-free travel is linked to a country's economic progress. Professor Trevor Williams, former chief economist at Lloyds Bank, said: “In many respects, future global economic progress depends upon lagging regions showing substantial improvement in their openness to each other, and on wealthier blocs and countries showing more openness to developing nations.”
In the region, the planned GCC Unified Tourist Visa project will enhance regional mobility, with “positive spillovers” to the smaller Gulf states, according to Robert Mogielnicki, a senior resident scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington. He said the project “serves as an important example of subregional integration and connectivity – a process that would be extremely difficult to replicate across the broader Middle East and North Africa”.
In Africa, Kenya's new visa-free travel policy also came into effect this month. Political analyst Justice Malala said that this, and Rwanda's similar move, “breathe new life” into the African Union's attempt to bring about free movement of goods, services, capital and the continent's 1.4 billion people. “Kenya and Rwanda are the first major political and economic powers to offer completely visa-free access to international and continental visitors,” he said.
Henley & Partners's research also shows a correlation with investment migration programmes. Countries that offer the right to reside in return for some investment in the nation have demonstrated improved rankings in passport power, as well as general economic performance.
