Dutch citizens have something to be proud of because they hold one of the world’s most powerful passports. This ranking is based on The Henley Passport Index. It includes 199 different passports and 227 travel destinations.
Exclusive data from the International Air Transport Authority is used to rank each of the countries on the list. How they rank is based on the number of countries to which a passport holder could travel without needing a pre-arrival visa.
The Netherlands has dropped a place in the rankings since last year, but the country is still one of the world’s most powerful passports, coming in fifth place alongside Austria, Denmark and Sweden. Not too shabby!
Dutch passport holders can travel to 188 countries freely, which is only five fewer than Japanese passport holders who ranked first in the list with the ability to visit 193 countries visa-free. So who else ranked in the top ten this year?
1. Japan (193)
2. South Korea and Singapore (192)
3. Germany and Spain (190)
4. Finland, Italy and Luxembourg (189)
5. Austria, Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden (188)
6. France, Ireland, Portugal and the United Kingdom (187)
7. Belgium, Czech Republic, New Zealand, Norway Switzerland and the United States (186)
8. Australia, Canada, Greece and Malta (185)
9. Hungary and Poland (184)
10. Lithuania and Slovakia (183)
Unsurprisingly, Afghanistan was ranked lowest on the list, with passport holders able to visit just 27 countries without a visa. Iraq (29) and Syria (30) sit just above Afghanistan in the rankings. The lowest-scoring European country is Kosovo (41).