Passport power rank 2017: the world's strongest and weakest passports

For over a decade the Henley & Partners Visa Restrictions Index has ranked the world's passports by one blunt, practical measure: how many destinations a citizen can enter without arranging a visa in advance. The 2017 edition, built on visa rules in force on 1 January 2017, kept Germany at the top for a fourth straight year — and laid bare a wide gulf between the strongest and weakest travel documents.

Germany held first place with visa-free or visa-on-arrival access to 176 of a possible 218 destinations. Sweden followed on 175. Five countries shared third place on 174 — Denmark, Finland, Italy, Spain and the United States — an unusually strong showing for the only non-European passport in the leading group. A further eight passports tied for fourth on 173: Austria, Belgium, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Singapore and the United Kingdom. Singapore's presence there was an early hint of the Asian rise that would later reshape the top of the table.

How the ranking is built

The index treats 219 territories as possible destinations. Because a traveller earns no point for entering their own country, the maximum attainable score is 218. It is compiled with data from the International Air Transport Association, which maintains one of the world's largest travel-information databases, and it evaluated 199 passports in 2017 — the 193 member states of the United Nations plus Taiwan, Kosovo, the Palestinian Territory, Vatican City, Hong Kong and Macao.

The scoring rule is deliberately practical. Visa-on-arrival and straightforward e-visas — where the only conditions are a fee, a return ticket or a hotel booking — count the same as fully visa-free entry. E-visas that demand an invitation letter or consular approval do not earn a point. A separate ranking published by Arton Capital counts destinations on slightly different terms, which is why the two indices rarely agree number-for-number; the figures here are the Henley & Partners methodology throughout.

German passport holders could reach 176 destinations without paperwork arranged in advance; Afghan holders just 24 — a 152-destination gulf inside a single ranking.

The bottom of the table

At the other extreme sat Afghanistan, ranked 104th and last, with visa-free or visa-on-arrival access to only 24 destinations. Iraq (27), Pakistan (28) and Syria (29) were barely better placed, and Somalia (30) rounded out the bottom five. Each of these passports opened fewer than a sixth of the world's borders without a visa secured beforehand — a reminder that the document a person is born with still shapes how freely they can move.

What changed over the year

Visa freedom widened again in 2017, continuing a long upward trend, though the reshuffling near the top was modest. Henley's analysis noted that around 48 passports slipped in the rankings while roughly 42 held steady. Peru was the year's biggest climber, rising 15 places after gaining visa-free access to Europe's Schengen area; Ghana fell furthest, dropping four places. Established leaders felt smaller tremors too: the United Kingdom continued a gradual slide from the joint-first position it had shared with Germany earlier in the decade — an early sign of the uncertainty around post-Brexit travel rights.

What a passport score does and doesn't tell you

• It measures access on arrival — not how easy it is to obtain a visa where one is still required.
• Visa-on-arrival and simple e-visas are treated the same as fully visa-free entry, so two identical scores can mean slightly different travel experiences.
• It reflects the rules on a fixed date; a single political or security change can move a country quickly.
• It ranks the passport, not the traveller — individual entry still depends on nationality, purpose of travel and personal history.

Reading a 2017 ranking today

These standings capture visa rules as of January 2017 and have not stood still since. The index is now refreshed far more often than once a year, and the order has changed considerably — Asian passports such as Singapore and Japan went on to top the ranking in later editions, while several of the 2017 leaders drifted down a place or two. The 2017 table is best read as a snapshot of global mobility at that moment rather than a current travel guide.

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