World's Most Powerful Passports for 2024 Revealed

The summer travel season is still a few months away, but it's never too early to start making preparations for your big trip. Depending on where in the world you're traveling from, you could have a very different process to enter certain countries that might require visas and other legal documentation to clear customs. 

Every year, the Henley Passport Index ranks 199 national passports from around the world and scores them based on how many visa-free destinations the passports allow. Japan has retained the top spot for five years in a row, with 194 countries accessible without a visa using a Japanese passport. This year, though, it shares the top billing, as Singaporean passports also allow visa-free travel to 194 countries. They're joined in at the top of the list by France, Germany, Italy, and Spain. 

The U.S. isn't among the 10 best passport countries, although it does make the larger list. It's ranked at number seven on the list with visa-free access to 188 countries, sitting alongside Canada and Hungary. But many other nations, largely located in Europe, occupy the spots above it. 

"The average number of destinations travelers are able to access visa-free has nearly doubled from 58 in 2006 to 111 in 2024," Dr. Christian H. Kalin, the inventor the passport index, said in a statement. "However, as we enter the new year, the top-ranked countries are now able to travel to a staggering 166 more destinations visa-free than Afghanistan, which sits at the bottom of the ranking with access to just 28 countries without a visa."

The top passports—and how many visa-free destinations they allow—are as follows: 

1. France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Singapore, Spain (194)
2. Finland, South Korea, Sweden (193)
3. Austria, Denmark, Ireland, Netherlands (192)
4. Belgium, Luxembourg, Norway, Portugal, U.K. (191)
5. Greece, Malta, Switzerland (190)
6. Australia, Czech Republic, New Zealand, Poland (189)
7. Canada, Hungary, U.S. (188)
8. Estonia, Lithuania (187)
9. Latvia, Slovakia, Slovenia (186)
10. Iceland (185)