If you grew up in the UK, it might have never even occurred to you that ‘passport privilege’ is a thing. You might’ve never thought about how the passport that you carry determines more than your nationality; it tells you where on Earth you can and can’t go.
Four times a year, the Henley Passport index measures the strength of almost every national passport in the world and pits them against each other, thus determining what the planet”s most and least powerful nationalities. In 2023, the UK came sixth, but at the start of 2024 we had made it to fourth.
Now, Henley’s most recent quarterly report has been released, and the British passport is… still in fourth! Sorry for the anticlimax.
It’s worth mentioning that while we remain in fourth place, with visa-free entry to 190 countries (which has actually gone down by 1 in the past six months), there are 13 nations above us. This is because they’re all in joint second and third.
The main difference since January is that Singapore, which previously shared the top spot with five other nations, has officially become the sole occupier of the number one position with 195 destinations free to visit. Congrats, Singapore. No jealousy here whatsoever. Its former peers, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Spain all remain in second at 192.
Afghanistan remains at the bottom of the list, with only 26 countries allowing its citizens visa-free access. The USA, meanwhile, is down in 8th place.
The chairman of Henley & Partners, Christian Kaelin, said of the recent ranking: ‘The global mobility gap between those at the top and bottom of the index is now wider than it has ever been’ despite the fact that ‘the global average number of destinations travellers are able to access visa-free has nearly doubled from 58 in 2006 to 111 in 2024.’
No doubt we’ll be back again in a few months to see what’s changed – until then, enjoy your ventures to whichever country you decide to travel to, visa-free or visa-ful.
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