Henley Passport Index
The Henley Passport Index is the ranking of all the world’s passports according to the number of destinations their holders can access without a prior visa.
The index includes 199 passports and 227 travel destinations.
The index is brought out by Henley and Partners.
Singapore, which is now officially the most powerful passport in the world, with its citizens able to visit 192 travel destinations out of 227 around the world visa-free.
Germany, Italy, and Spain occupied the second place.
Alongside Japan at the third position are Austria, Finland, France, Luxembourg, South Korea, and Sweden.
Japan, which occupied the top position on the Henley Passport Index for five years, dropped to the third place.
The U.K. climbed two places to occupy the fourth place, while the U.S. continued its decade-long slide down the index, dropping two places to the eighth spot.
Henley & Partners also conducted an exclusive new research resulting in the Henley Openness Index which measures how many nations does a country allow visa-free access to.
At the bottom of the Index were four countries for scoring zero for not permitting visa-free access for any passport — namely, Afghanistan, North Korea, Papua New Guinea, and Turkmenistan.
The U.K. climbed two places to occupy the fourth place, while the U.S. continued its decade-long slide down the index, dropping two places to the eighth spot.
Henley & Partners also conducted an exclusive new research resulting in the Henley Openness Index which measures how many nations does a country allow visa-free access to.
At the bottom of the Index were four countries for scoring zero for not permitting visa-free access for any passport — namely, Afghanistan, North Korea, Papua New Guinea, and Turkmenistan.
India’s Ranking
India has climbed seven places on the Henley Passport Index, 2023 to the 80th rank from 87 last year.
Though the number of countries allowed visa-free access to Indian passport holders remains unchanged.
In 2014, India ranked 76 with 52 countries allowing Indian passport holders visa-free access, but its performance has not been linear.
It ranked 88 in 2015 (visa-free access to 51 countries), 85 in 2016, 87 in 2017, 81 in 2018, 82 in 2019 and 2020, and 81 in 2021.
COMMENTS