Japan’s Passport Most Powerful, India at 87th: Survey

Japan, Singapore, and South Korea have appeared as countries with the world’s most powerful passports, whereas Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan are countries with the weakest. Henley and Partners, an immigration firm, has released their annual rankings of the passports of different countries. The countries are ranked based on the visa-free score. This score basically denotes the number of countries the passport holders can travel to visa-free. India stands at the 87th position with a visa-free score of 60.

The rankings are based on the number of countries that the holder of the passports can get access to. As per the passport index, Japan’s passport is the most powerful allowing the holder access to 193 countries, followed by Singapore’s and South Korea’s passport which grants access to 192 countries.

China and Bolivia share the same score of 80 and are put at 69th position out of a total of 112. The passport holders of Russia can get access to 119 countries in total and thus Russia is in the 50th position. The United Kingdom and the United States of America have acquired the sixth and seventh positions, respectively.

Coming to the countries with the weakest passports, Afghanistan is ranked the lowest with its holders getting access to 27 countries. With a visa-free score of 29, Iraq comes at the 111th position, just above Afghanistan. Pakistan and Syria are positioned at 109 and 110 with visa-free scores of 32 and 30.

The Hanley Passport Index is developed using the official database of the International Air Transport Association (IATA). The global data is collected for as many as 227 travel destinations but since not all territories issue passports, many places are removed from the list. The Index first came into reality in 2006.

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