Wow. What a year it has been since we put together the 2016 version of our Passport Power Rank.
The UK left the EU, potentially losing visa-free travel privileges within the area (and the distinctive red passport).
America voted in Donald Trump who swiftly tried to bring in a ridiculous travel ban, build a wall, …. I could go on.
How have these events effected a citizen’s ability to travel visa-free? Here is the 2017 version of our Passport Power Rank.
Methodology
Each year Henley & Partners publishes a “Visa Restriction Index”, a global ranking of countries according to the travel freedom that their citizens enjoy.
Points are awarded to countries for the number of destinations that offer visa-free travel to their citizens. e-Visas are treated the same as visas on arrival. Where the conditions for obtaining an e-visa are straightforward (fee, return ticket, hotel reservation), a visa-free point was assigned.
There are 219 destination countries (territories) in total. The maximum attainable score is 218 (points are not assigned for a national traveling to their own country).
Analysis
Best and worst passports for travel
| Rank 2017 | Country | Visa free destinations 2017 |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Germany | 176 |
| 2 | Sweden | 175 |
| 3 | Italy | 174 |
| 3 | Spain | 174 |
| 3 | Finland | 174 |
| 3 | United States | 174 |
| 3 | Denmark | 174 |
| 8 | France | 173 |
| 8 | United Kingdom | 173 |
| 8 | Belgium | 173 |
| 8 | Netherlands | 173 |
| 8 | Singapore | 173 |
| 8 | Austria | 173 |
| 8 | Norway | 173 |
| 8 | Luxembourg | 173 |
…
| Rank 2017 | Country | Visa free destinations 2017 |
|---|---|---|
| 185 | Lebanon | 37 |
| 185 | South Sudan | 37 |
| 185 | Kosovo | 37 |
| 185 | Sudan | 37 |
| 185 | Ethiopia | 37 |
| 190 | Palestine, State of | 36 |
| 190 | Nepal | 36 |
| 192 | Yemen | 35 |
| 192 | Eritrea | 35 |
| 194 | Libya | 33 |
| 195 | Somalia | 30 |
| 196 | Syrian Arab Republic | 29 |
| 197 | Pakistan | 28 |
| 198 | Iraq | 27 |
| 199 | Afghanistan | 24 |
Germany tops the list for a fourth year in a row with 176 destinations accessible without a visa for passport holders (out of a possible 219). Down one from 2016.
Interestingly, various EU Member States have varying visa free travel to non-EU countries.
Syria, Pakistan, Iraq and Afghanistan prop up the table, each with visa-free access to fewer than 30 countries.
Year-on-year changes
Visa-free travel between countries increased again between 2016 and 2017 – albeit at a much slower rate then 2015 and 2016 – by 55 extra visa-free destinations in total.
86 passports had visa-free travel increased, 70 decreased, and 43 had no change at all.
Biggest visa restriction changes in 2017
The biggest mover was Marshall Islands which gained an additional 33 destinations its holders can travel to without the requiring a visa. Peru (+32 visa-free destinations), Micronesia (+31), Soloman Islands (+30), Kiribati (+30) and Tuvalu were the other signifiant movers.
At the other end of the scale was Jordan (-4), Ghana (-5) and Dijibouti (-5) had the amount of countries they could travel to without needing a travel visa decrease. Notably, India (-3), Hong Kong (-2), UK (-2) and France (-2) also saw visa-free travel privileges decrease. Perhaps a sign of things to come for the UK since Brexit.
Improvements
Visa restrictions can change for a wide variety of reasons: security, political, social, etc. For additional studies it would be to add such context for each country to try and better understand why visa requirements seem to change so frequently.
tl;dr
The German passport is the most powerful allowing visa-free travel to 176 countries. In contrast, Afghani’s can only travel to 24 countries without a visa.