The power of the UK passport has dropped to its lowest position in world rankings since The Henley Passport Index began in 2006.
Coming in at a joint eighth place, alongside the US, Belgium, Greece and Norway, the UK passport was previously ranked as the world’s most powerful in 2010, 2013, 2014 and 2015. But it began to slide post-Brexit, to third in 2016, fourth in 2017, fifth in 2018 and sixth in 2019.
Prior to 2020, the lowest the UK passport had sat on the rankings was at sixth in 2008 and 2009.
Japan was listed as the world’s most powerful passport with visa-free access to 191 countries – comparatively the UK passport can access 184 countries visa-free.
The world’s most powerful passports
According to The Henley Passport Index
1. Japan – access to 191 countries visa-free
2. Singapore – 190
3. Germany and South Korea – 189
4. Finland and Italy – 188
5. Denmark, Luxembourg and Spain – 187
6. France and Sweden – 186
7. Austria, Ireland, Netherlands, Portugal and Switzerland – 185
8. Belgium, Greece, Norway, UK and US – 184
9. Australia, Canada, Czech Republic, Malta and New Zealand – 183
10. Hungary, Lithuania and Slovakia – 181
11. Iceland, Latvia and Slovenia – 180
12. Estonia – 179
13. Liechtenstein and Malaysia – 178
14. Poland – 176
15. Monaco – 175
16. Chile and Cyprus – 174
17. Romania – 172
18. Bulgaria and the UAE – 171
19. Argentina and Brazil – 170
20. Croatia and Hong Kong – 169
Singapore, who was last year ranked as the most powerful passport, dropped to second place this year with visa-free access to 190 destinations.
Germany and South Korea shared a joint third placing with access to 189 countries visa-free and Finland and Italy’s passports came in fourth.
At the other end of the spectrum, Afghanistan’s passport was listed as the least powerful, with visa-free access to just 26 countries. Iraq, Syria, Somalia, Pakistan and Yemen were also listed in the bottom five.
You can view the complete passport rankings at henleypassportindex.com
