dotlah! dotlah!
  • Cities
  • Technology
  • Business
  • Politics
  • Society
  • Science
  • About
Social Links
  • zedreviews.com
  • citi.io
  • aster.cloud
  • liwaiwai.com
  • guzz.co.uk
  • atinatin.com
0 Likes
0 Followers
0 Subscribers
dotlah!
  • Cities
  • Technology
  • Business
  • Politics
  • Society
  • Science
  • About
  • Cities
  • Lah!
  • Society

The World’s Most Powerful Passports Of 2020

  • June 23, 2020
Total
0
Shares
0
0
0

If you’re a passport holder in these countries, you can travel freer than anyone else.

Earlier this year, Henley & Partners named the most powerful passports in the world for the beginning of 2020.

Since then, much has changed given the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic which rendered the world’s mobility systems virtually paralysed.

With this, they published an April 2020 update to discuss how these changes affected the rankings as well as the state of global travel on the whole.

The most powerful passports

Source: Henley & Partners

Asian countries have retained their positions at the top of the Most Powerful Passports list.

Still on the lead is Japan with a visa-free score of 191. This means that Japan can access 191 destinations visa-free.

Following Japan is Singapore with a score of 190. The tie between Singapore and Germany for the third spot remains unbroken, with each country scoring 189.

In the fourth spot, there is a four-way tie among Finland, Italy, Luxembourg, and Spain — all obtaining a score of 188. At the beginning of the year, Spain and Luxembourg were only in fifth place.

Denmark retains the fifth spot, with a score of 187. It shares the position with Austria, a newcomer in the top five. Previously, Austria was only in seventh place.

The rest of the top ten is shown above, it can be seen that there are multiple ties occurring for each rank.

While Asia dominated the highest three positions, it is Europe which has the greatest number of countries obtaining the top ten scores with 20 countries making it in. This is not surprising since Europe’s Schengen Area already provides a high level of access to other neighbouring countries without border checks to begin with.

The non-Asian or non-European countries which made it to the top ten are the United States (7th), New Zealand (8th), Australia (9th), and Canada (9th)

According to Henley & Partners, an average citizen could access 58 destinations without a visa back in 2006. However, this number doubled to 107 as of 2020, indicative of sustained growth for travel freedom.

Beneath the surface

Three months since the publication of the original leaderboard, nothing much has changed with respect to the passport rankings. However, the imposed travel restrictions and border closures impede the ability to travel even in the most visa-free countries.

“In a global health emergency, relative passport strength becomes temporarily meaningless. Travel freedom is contingent on factors that occasionally can be utterly beyond our control,” according to Henley & Partners Chairman Dr. Christian H. Kaelin.

“As public health concerns rightfully take precedence, even within the otherwise borderless EU, this is an opportunity to reflect on what freedom of movement and citizenship essentially mean for those of us who have perhaps taken them for granted in the past,” Kaelin added.

When passports were first standardised during the 1920 League of Nations Conference on Passports and Frontier Formalities, among the chief reasons specified for doing so is to regulate the spread of epidemics.

Now that we are faced with a global disease outbreak, tightened — and possibly long-term —restrictions on travel may be imposed once this pandemic ends.

The index

The rankings of these countries are based on their Henley Passport Index (HPI) scores.

Right now, 199 different passports are included in the Index. The data needed for the computation of the Index are obtained from the International Air Transport Authority (IATA) supplemented with open-source data.

To obtain the score, each passport is checked for their “visa-free” status for all the 227 unique travel destinations considered by Henley & Partners. A country is defined to be “visa-free” for a destination if they satisfy any of the following conditions:

  • a holder can enter a territory without a visa requirement
  • a holder upon arrival, can obtain a visa, a visitor’s permit, or an electronic travel authority (ETA)

If a country satisfies the “visa-free” condition, it gains one point for that particular destination. Otherwise, it gets a zero. Getting the total for all destinations yields the final HPI score.

To see the full rankings, you can check out below:

Total
0
Shares
Share
Tweet
Share
Share
Related Topics
  • Henley & Partners
  • Passport
  • Passport Index
  • Travel
  • Visa-Free
majulah

Previous Article
  • Lah!

NTUC Enterprise Rolls Out $50 Million Support Package To Help Singaporeans Manage Cost Of Living Amid COVID-19

  • June 23, 2020
View Post
Next Article
  • Cities
  • People

The World’s Most Powerful Passports Of 2020

  • June 23, 2020
View Post
You May Also Like
View Post
  • Cities
  • Technology

Meralco PowerGen’s PacificLight starts up 100 MW fast-response plant in Singapore

  • dotlah.com
  • June 20, 2025
View Post
  • Cities

Renewable energy, carbon credits are priority areas of cooperation for Singapore, Philippines: Lawrence Wong

  • dotlah.com
  • June 4, 2025
View Post
  • Cities
  • Politics

Singapore businesses eye more investments in PH, says PM Wong

  • Dean Marc
  • June 4, 2025
View Post
  • Cities
  • Research

Mathematicians uncover the logic behind how people walk in crowds

  • dotlah.com
  • April 3, 2025
View Post
  • Lah!

Tariffs, Trump, and Other Things That Start With T – They’re Not The Problem, It’s How We Use Them

  • John Francis
  • March 25, 2025
View Post
  • Lah!

Canonical announces 12 year Kubernetes LTS

  • John Francis
  • March 4, 2025
“Toyota Woven City,” a Test Course for Mobility, Completes Phase 1 Construction and Prepares for Launch
View Post
  • Cities
  • Technology

“Toyota Woven City,” a Test Course for Mobility, Completes Phase 1 Construction and Prepares for Launch

  • John Francis
  • January 6, 2025
dotlah-smartnation-singapore-lawrence-wong
View Post
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Featured
  • Features
  • Lah!
  • Machine Learning
  • Technology

Growth, community and trust the ‘building blocks’ as Singapore refreshes Smart Nation strategies: PM Wong

  • Dean Marc
  • October 9, 2024


Trending
  • 1
    • Technology
    OCBC Bank Launches Healthcare App With Partners To Provide Access To The Largest Panel Of Telehealth Doctors
    • June 25, 2020
  • 2
    • Lah!
    PM Lee Hsien Loong on the Novel Coronavirus (nCoV) Situation in Singapore on 8 February 2020
    • February 8, 2020
  • 3
    • Technology
    DBS And GovTech To Pilot SingPass Face Verification Technology For Faster Digital Banking Sign-ups
    • July 31, 2020
  • 4
    • Society
    The World’s Top Remittance Recipients
    • May 4, 2020
  • 5
    • People
    • World Events
    Coronavirus: Which Countries Are Most Affected?
    • March 5, 2020
  • 6
    • Technology
    Food Manufacturers Rise To The Digital Challenge
    • May 24, 2021
  • person-using-macbook-pexels-cottonbro-5054213 7
    • Features
    • People
    Can Online Therapy Improve Mental Health During The Pandemic?
    • May 6, 2021
  • 8
    • Lah!
    Singapore Navy’s Information Fusion Centre Takes Part In Multilateral Exercise SEACAT To Enhance Regional Cooperation In Maritime Security
    • August 22, 2021
  • 9
    • Science
    • Society
    An Indian Company Is Gearing Up To Make Millions Of Doses Of A $3 Covid-19 Vaccine
    • August 13, 2020
  • goswifties_french-arts_20240511_wm 10
    • Featured
    Artistic Movements From France That Shaped The World.
    • May 15, 2024
  • 11
    • People
    • World Events
    COVID-19: Social Distancing Is Triggering Another Crisis We Must Prevent
    • April 21, 2020
  • Digital technology, internet, network connection, and big data 12
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • Featured
    • Science
    • Technology
    The Speculative Promise and Peril of Hyperintelligent Minds
    • July 11, 2023
Trending
  • 1
    Meralco PowerGen’s PacificLight starts up 100 MW fast-response plant in Singapore
    • June 20, 2025
  • 2
    A Father’s Day Gift for Every Pop and Papa
    • June 14, 2025
  • 3
    Apple services deliver powerful features and intelligent updates to users this autumn
    • June 12, 2025
  • 4
    Apple supercharges its tools and technologies for developers to foster creativity, innovation, and design
    • June 11, 2025
  • 5
    It’s time to stop debating whether AI is genuinely intelligent and focus on making it work for society
    • June 8, 2025
  • 6
    PBBM asks Singapore to invest more in PH renewable energy projects
    • June 6, 2025
  • 7
    Singapore PM Wong arrives in Malacañang
    • June 4, 2025
  • 8
    Renewable energy, carbon credits are priority areas of cooperation for Singapore, Philippines: Lawrence Wong
    • June 4, 2025
  • 9
    Singapore businesses eye more investments in PH, says PM Wong
    • June 4, 2025
  • 10
    The Summer Adventures : Hiking and Nature Walks Essentials
    • June 3, 2025
Social Links
dotlah! dotlah!
  • Cities
  • Technology
  • Business
  • Politics
  • Society
  • Science
  • About
Connecting Dots Across Asia's Tech and Urban Landscape

Input your search keywords and press Enter.