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Although Singapore is now in pole position, many European passport holders have impressive freedom of movement.
ADVERTISEMENTSingapore has risen to the top of a ranking of the world’s strongest passports, knocking Spain off the top spot.Despite that blow for the country, European nations – including Spain, now relegated to second place – make up the rest of the top five. VisaGuide.World’s ranking is seen as one of the most reliable within the travel industry, along with the Henley Passport Index. The company evaluates 199 countries and territories globally and bases its results on factors including visa-free access, eVisas, and global mobility. It then uses its own Destination Significance Score (DSS) to assign a unique value to each passport, although the DSS is not revealed in the ranking. With this system, VisaGuide.World has found that the Singaporean passport is officially the strongest passport in the entire world – with a score of 91.27 out of a possible 100 as of September 2024. Spain in second place, with a score of 90.60 is closely followed by France, whose score is 90.53. Next up are the Italian and Hungarian passports, which come in with scores of 90.31 and 90.28 respectively.It’s good news for Europe overall, with only one other country not on the continent, Japan, in the top 20. Japan takes 15th place, the same position as last year.Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Austria round out the top 10 ranking. How does VisaGuide.World rank passports?Released four times a year, VisaGuide.World’s passport ranking examines the number of destinations passport holders can access without a visa. Henley, usually thought of as the authority, takes a similar approach but has yet to release its ranking for this quarter. VisaGuide.World takes other factors into consideration, creating its DSS for each travel destination.That score factors in the type of entry policy each country enforces on an individual passport. That encompasses visa-free entry, Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA), visa on arrival, e-Visas embassy approved visas, passport-free travel or banned entry. This means the next ranking could look very different as Schengen countries introduce the Entry/Exit System (ETS) and ETIAS visa waiver for some non-EU countries and the UK rolls out its ETA. The DSS also assigns points for the country’s GDP, global power and tourism development. ADVERTISEMENTNot all of its criteria are considered equal, though. Visa-free access to a country with a high DSS earns a passport more points in the index than entry to a country with a low score.The fact that VisaGuide.World does not specify the DSS of each country means that other factors may also affect the outcome of the index.Why did Spain fall to second place in the ranking?In VisaGuide.World’s last ranking, Spanish passport holders could travel visa-free to 160 countries and territories. In September’s results, that number has fallen to just 107.It appears to be a drop across the board, though. Singaporean passport holders could previously visit 164 places without a visa but today, that only applies to 160. ADVERTISEMENTWhile the ranking doesn’t explicitly say why this is the case, it is a regularly-changing figure due to shifting diplomatic ties, mutual visa policies, and the political and economic stability of countries and territories globally.Spain, though, and all the European countries in the top 20 do have a benefit that Singapore doesn’t. Passport holders of these nations can travel to more than 30 countries without using their passports at all, thanks to the existence of the European Union and the Schengen zone. For these citizens, travelling with just an ID card is possible, making freedom of movement simple.With that in mind, perhaps the drop from top spot in this ranking won’t make too many Spanish citizens unhappy after all.ADVERTISEMENT
