Singapore’s passport is now the most powerful in the world. Here's how other countries ranked

Singapore has overtaken Japan to boast of the world's astir almighty passport, the Henley Passport Index showed.

What it means is that the Singapore passport allows holders visa-free introduction to 192 destinations retired of 227 successful the world.

The planetary passport ranking for 2023 was conducted based connected information provided by the International Air Transport Authority, oregon IATA, which ranks the world's passports based connected the fig of destinations their holders tin entree without a anterior visa.

Germany, Italy and Spain tied successful 2nd place, with their citizens being capable to sojourn 190 planetary destinations.

Japan, which topped the database past year, slipped to 3rd spot — its passport allowing visa-free entree to 189 destinations, down from 193 successful 2022. Other passports that tied with Japan to fertile 3rd spot are Austria, Finland, France, Luxembourg, South Korea and Sweden. 

The UK jumped up 2 places to travel successful fourth, having turned the country aft a six-year decline.

"The wide inclination implicit the past of the 18-year-old ranking has been towards greater question freedom," Henley and Partners said successful a property merchandise statement.

Conversely, retired of the apical 10 countries, the U.S. saw the smallest summation successful its scale people implicit the past decade, the concern migration consultancy noted. The U.S. present ranks eighth spot successful the passport index.

"The communicative is simply a elemental 1 — by much oregon little lasting still, the U.S. has fallen behind," said municipality tech chap astatine Cornell Tech's Jacobs Institute, Greg Lindsay. He pointed retired that the state has been "steadily overtaken" by South Korea, Japan and Singapore.

"America's relentless descent down the rankings — and unlikelihood of reclaiming the highest presumption immoderate clip soon — is simply a informing to its neighbour Canada and the remainder of the Anglosphere arsenic well," Lindsay said successful a abstracted connection released alongside the index. 

The descent volition lend to a "decline successful U.S. brushed power" should businesses look challenges inviting partners to meetings and tourists having to brushwood exertion delays, said Center for Strategic and International Studies' elder non-resident subordinate Annie Pforzheimer.

More than conscionable a question document, Henley and Partners said a beardown passport provides important fiscal freedoms erstwhile it comes to planetary investments and concern opportunities. 

"Global connectivity and entree person go indispensable features of wealthiness instauration and preservation, and its worth volition lone turn arsenic geopolitical volatility and determination instability increase," the study said.