Germany has claimed bragging rights in an annual ranking of the world’s most powerful passports, while the UK and US each fell multiple spots.

Best passport in the world - Germany
Best passport in the world – Germany

All three countries shared first place in last year’s study, but the UK and US have dropped to third and fourth, respectively, in this year’s list.

German citizens hold the world’s most powerful passport as they can visit 177 countries without a visa, while British travellers can enter 175 and US tourists can travel to 174.

Good news Canadians we were #6! 

With a maximum attainable score of 218, the visa restriction index by Henley & Partners, a citizenship and planning firm, ranks nations or territories based on the number of countries their citizens can travel to visa-free.

It is based on visa restrictions that were in place on 1 January.

Germany claimed sole possession of first spot this year after three countries lifted visa restrictions for its citizens, edging Sweden, which finished second with visa-free access to 176 countries.

1 Comment

  • Rakesh
    Posted March 2, 2016 4:04 am 0Likes

    Pretty poor way to judge passport strength purely based on number of countries. Countries should be weighted based on number of incoming travellers (visa free access to the UK is worth more than say Congo) as well as difficulty of actually obtaining the visa (for example getting visa free access to India [a multi day process] is worth a lot more than somewhere that offers visa on arrival).

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