Though Singapore is now in pole place, many European passport holders have spectacular freedom of motion.
Singapore has risen to the highest of a rating of the world’s strongest passports, knocking Spain off the highest spot.
Regardless of that blow for the nation, European nations – together with Spain, now relegated to second place – make up the remainder of the highest 5.
VisaGuide.World’s rating is seen as one of the crucial dependable inside the journey trade, together with the Henley Passport Index.
The corporate evaluates 199 international locations and territories globally and bases its outcomes on components together with visa-free entry, eVisas, and international mobility.
It then makes use of its personal Vacation spot Significance Rating (DSS) to assign a singular worth to every passport, though the DSS is just not revealed within the rating.
With this technique, VisaGuide.World has discovered that the Singaporean passport is formally the strongest passport in the complete world – with a rating of 91.27 out of a attainable 100 as of September 2024.
Spain in second place, with a rating of 90.60 is intently adopted by France, whose rating is 90.53.
Subsequent up are the Italian and Hungarian passports, which are available with scores of 90.31 and 90.28 respectively.
It’s excellent news for Europe general, with just one different nation not on the continent, Japan, within the prime 20. Japan takes fifteenth place, the identical place as final 12 months.
Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Austria spherical out the highest 10 rating.
How does VisaGuide.World rank passports?
Launched 4 occasions a 12 months, VisaGuide.World’s passport rating examines the variety of locations passport holders can entry with out a visa. Henley, normally regarded as the authority, takes an analogous strategy however has but to launch its rating for this quarter.
VisaGuide.World takes different components into consideration, creating its DSS for every journey vacation spot.
That rating components in the kind of entry coverage every nation enforces on a person passport. That encompasses visa-free entry, Digital Journey Authorisation (ETA), visa on arrival, e-Visas embassy authorised visas, passport-free journey or banned entry.
This implies the following rating might look very totally different as Schengen international locations introduce the Entry/Exit System (ETS) and ETIAS visa waiver for some non-EU international locations and the UK rolls out its ETA.
The DSS additionally assigns factors for the nation’s GDP, international energy and tourism improvement.
Not all of its standards are thought of equal, although. Visa-free entry to a rustic with a excessive DSS earns a passport extra factors within the index than entry to a rustic with a low rating.
The truth that VisaGuide.World doesn’t specify the DSS of every nation implies that different components may have an effect on the end result of the index.
Why did Spain fall to second place within the rating?
In VisaGuide.World’s final rating, Spanish passport holders might journey visa-free to 160 international locations and territories. In September’s outcomes, that quantity has fallen to only 107.
It seems to be a drop throughout the board, although. Singaporean passport holders might beforehand go to 164 locations with out a visa however at this time, that solely applies to 160.
Whereas the rating doesn’t explicitly say why that is the case, it’s a regularly-changing determine as a result of shifting diplomatic ties, mutual visa insurance policies, and the political and financial stability of nations and territories globally.
Spain, although, and all of the European international locations within the prime 20 do have a profit that Singapore doesn’t. Passport holders of those nations can journey to greater than 30 international locations with out utilizing their passports in any respect, due to the existence of the European Union and the Schengen zone.
For these residents, travelling with simply an ID card is feasible, making freedom of motion easy.
With that in thoughts, maybe the drop from prime spot on this rating gained’t make too many Spanish residents sad in any case.