• Here are the world's most (and least) powerful passports in 2022

    International
    Here are the world's most (and least) powerful passports in 2022
    The 50th-ranked Russian travel documents are recognised by 119 countries with ease. China came in at number 69 with access to 80 nations, followed by India at number 87 and Afghanistan at number one with only access to 27 nations.

    Digital Desk: As the world recovers from Covid-19, Japan, Singapore, and South Korea now have the most powerful passports, reversing the pre-pandemic rankings that were dominated by European countries.
    According to Henley & Partners, an immigration consultancy, a Japanese passport offers hassle-free entry to 193 countries, one more than passports from Singapore and South Korea.

    The 50th-ranked Russian travel documents are recognised by 119 countries with ease. China came in at number 69 with access to 80 nations, followed by India at number 87 and Afghanistan at number one with only access to 27 nations.



    Henley & Partners Chairman Christian Kaelin said in a statement that "the recovery and reclamation of our travel freedoms, and our innate instinct to move and migrate, will take time."

    According to the index, Asian nations' passports hardly ever appeared among the top 10 most widely used passports worldwide as recently as 2017. Germany is now in second place to South Korea as Europe's dominance has gradually waned. According to the most recent rankings, the US is ranked seventh with a score of 186, while the UK is ranked sixth with access to 187 countries.

    The index, which is based on data from 17 years, aids wealthy people and governments in evaluating the worth of citizenships around the world by identifying which passports provide the greatest amounts of visa-free or visa-on-arrival access. The index, however, only provides a hypothetical snapshot of the best documents to hold as the world emerges from the pandemic, as travel around the world has yet to fully recover from Covid restrictions.