World’s most powerful passports: Japan tops list. Find out India’s rank
For the fifth straight year, the Japanese passport is the most powerful among all passports in the world, as it allows visa-free access to as many as 193 countries, according to Henley Passport Index 2023.
India, on the other hand, improved its position by 2 spots from last year, and is currently ranked 85th on the index.
A holder of an Indian passport can travel visa-free to 59 countries (60 in 2022); Mauritanian and Uzbekistan passports are as powerful as that of India.
Passports of these countries hold the top 10 spots on the Henley Index:
Rank Passport(s) Visa-free travel to (out of 227 destinations)
1. Japan 193
2. Singapore, South Korea 192
3. Germany, Spain 190
4. Finland, Italy, Luxembourg 189
5. Austria, Denmark, Netherlands, Sweden 188
6. France, Ireland, Portugal, United Kingdom 187
7. Belgium, Czech Republic, New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland, United States 186
8. Australia, Canada, Greece, Malta 185
9. Hungary, Poland 184
10. Lithuania, Slovakia 183
85. India, Mauritania, Uzbekistan 59
Passports of these countries hold the bottom 10 spots on the Henley Index:
Rank Passport(s) Visa-free travel to (out of 227 destinations)
109. Afghanistan 27
108. Iraq 29
107. Syria 30
106. Pakistan 32
105. Yemen 34
104. Somalia 35
103. Nepal, Palestinian Territory 38
102. North Korea 40
101. Bangladesh, Kosovo, Libya 41
100. Democratic Republic of Congo, Lebanon, Sri Lanka, Sudan 42
Henley Passport Index
Invented nearly 20 years ago by Dr Christian H Kaelin, Chairman, Henley & Partners, the index is based on the exclusive and official data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA). It is the original ranking of all the passports according to the number of destinations their holders can visit without a prior visa.