The European passports are the world’s most powerful, and with a few exceptions, they occupy all the first spots in the newest passport index published by VisaGuide.World, granting their holders the chance of travelling visa-free to the majority of world countries.
While the two first spots in the index are occupied by Japan and Singapore, which have a passport score of 89.76 and 89.65, respectively (out of the possible 100-score), the Italian passport is listed world’s third most powerful, which makes it Europe’s best passport to have, at the same time.
The Italian passport is followed by more European Union Member Countries, with Germany’s passport being listed world’s fourth-best passport and Spain’s fifth.
Every other following spot is also occupied by an EU or Schengen Area country until the 22nd, where the passport of New Zealand sits, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.
In spite of not being listed in the top 20, other EU, and European countries in general, still perform well, with 14 European countries occupying positions from 21 to 40.
According to Besart Bajrami, founder of SchengenVisaInfo.com, one of the main reasons why EU passports perform so well in this new index is because of the high number of countries that EU nationals can access without the need for a passport at all, a privilege that no other world passport offer.
“The EU passports permit their holders to travel with only a valid ID to numerous countries, between 31 to 57. Even the Japanese and Singaporean passports are powerless when it comes to passport-free travel, and this adds quite the value to the EU passports,” Bajrami claims.
He also points out that no world country has banned the EU passports, which is a case common with other countries, like the United States, the passport of which is banned in three countries – Cuba, North Korea, and Syria. The South Korean passport on the other hand, is banned in seven countries – Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Syria, Ukraine, and Yemen.
According to the index, the most banned passport in the world is that of Kosovo, which is not even recognized by 15 world countries, including several ones in the EU, the citizens of which can actually enter Kosovo visa-free.
“For most of EU passports, only 28 countries, out of almost 200, require traditional visas. These countries, aside from Japan, all perform badly in VisaGuide’s Destination Significance Score,” Bajrami highlights.
Here is the list of each destination ranked by their Destination Significance Score.
The European countries that rank at the top of VisaGuide’s Passport Index, occupy the following positions.
- Italy – third
- Germany – fourth
- Spain – fifth
- Sweden – sixth
- Finland – seventh
- Denmark – eighth
- Luxembourg – ninth
- Austria – 10th
- Malta – 11th
- Norway – 12th
- Netherlands – 13th
- Belgium – 14th
- Portugal – 15th
- Switzerland – 16th
- France – 17th
- Greece – 18th
- Ireland – 19th
- Hungary – 20th
The newly launched passport index by VisaGuide.World, which is the first ever to rank world passports in a more comprehensive and accurate way than any other existing index, based on a carefully-built formula that takes more factors into consideration, has revealed that the Italian passport is in fact, the most powerful, giving its holders the freedom of roaming the world with fewer hurdles than with any other.