World’s most powerful passports for 2024 revealed: Here’s where US ranks

Singapore now has the world’s most powerful passport, according to the 2024 Henley Passport Index. 

The UK-based consulting firm Henley & Partners ranks all the world’s passports according to the number of destinations their holders can access without a prior visa. 

The index is based on data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA) and analyzed by the Henley & Partners research team. 

Updated monthly, the index includes 199 different passports and 227 different travel destinations.

US falls to No. 8 

The United States fell to the 8th spot, after climbing to No. 7 in January 2024, the index revealed. The U.S. has visa-free access to 186 destinations. In comparison, citizens of Singapore enjoy access to 195 travel destinations out of 227 around the world visa-free.

Five countries shared the No. 2 spot: France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Spain – each with visa-free access to 192 destinations. 

You can see the full list here.

A decade ago, in 2014, the U.S. jointly held the No. 1 position with the United Kingdom.

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“The general trend over the past two decades has been towards greater travel freedom, with the global average number of destinations travelers are able to access visa-free nearly doubling from 58 in 2006 to 111 in 2024,” Dr. Christian H. Kaelin, chairman of Henley & Partners and the inventor of the passport index, told Forbes. “However, the global mobility gap between those at the top and bottom of the index is now wider than it has ever been, with top-ranked Singapore able to access a record-breaking 169 more destinations visa-free than Afghanistan.” 

Afghanistan remains the world’s weakest passport with visa-free access to only 26 countries – the lowest score ever recorded in history of the index.

This story was reported from Los Angeles.