Several ranking agencies representing private entities each year release their ratings of the world's most and least powerful passports. One factor used to determine the rankings includes how many countries its holders can enter without a visa or with one secured upon arrival. Other considerations include GDP and the Human Development Index, which determine how difficult the nation makes it to attract business talent.
When immigration consulting firm Nomad Capitalist took the latter factor into its ranking, Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates were ranked as having some of the most powerful passports in the world.
🚨 Don’t miss this amazing Cyber Week move! Get 60% off TheStreet Pro. Act now before it's gone.😲
Image source: Shutterstock
These are the factors that make these passports the strongest of 2024
The Henley Index and global visas information platform VisaGuide.world are considered to conduct the most authoritative passport rankings in the industry. This week, The Henley Index released an updated ranking, putting the city-state of Singapore at the top, making it the world's most powerful passport.
Singapore was also a leader when Henley published its ranking in July 2024 but was second after Spain in VisaGuide.world's ranking for 2023. This year, the Scandinavian nation of Finland landed second, while Spain, Denmark, and Italy rounded out the top five, in that order.
The ranking weighs a total of seven categories such as visa-free travel access (this category ranks the highest) as well as the nation's GDP and tourism and human development indices. Finland, which rose from the top 10 to the runner-up spot this year, is regularly rated as having high happiness levels among its residents.
Related: A country just went visa-free for visitors with any passport
The top five strongest passports
Singapore, meanwhile, has been ranking high for years due to the high quality of life in the Asian state.
"The Singaporean passport is the strongest passport in the world, with a score of 91.27 as of December 2024," the report reads. "It is followed by the Finnish, Spanish, Danish, and Italian passports, respectively, to complete the top-five list of strongest passports for 2024."
More on travel:
- Southwest Airlines make a change some passengers won't like
- United Airlines to bring back route it hasn't flown for five years
- Is another part of Mexico becoming 'the next Tulum'?
In this ranking, the United States landed in a lowly 43rd spot in between the tiny European countries of Andorra and San Marino. The low ranking, also shared by other Western nations such as Canada and the United Kingdom, is influenced primarily by these countries’ strict border rules and their worsening relations with nations such as China at a time when the latter is opening up its visa rules to residents in many European countries.
When Henley first started publishing its passport rankings in 2006, the United States ranked at the top of the list. The coming decades, however, placed the U.S. significantly lower, even according to the rating system, which usually scored it higher.
According to Visaguide.world's ranking, the war-ravaged African nation of Somalia has the least powerful passport in 2024; only 10 of the 195 countries recognized by the United Nations grant visa-free travel to Somalians. By comparison, a Singaporean citizen can enter 160 countries across the world visa-free and get an eVisa or visa-upon-arrival at 40 others (in some cases, one of these two categories can apply depending on how long one plans to stay).
Related: Veteran fund manager sees world of pain coming for stocks
