Hong Kong has the world's 16th most powerful passport

Passport holders can enjoy visa-free access to 169 countries.

Hong Kong has moved up five places to snag 16th place in the world’s most powerful passports with visa-free access to 169 countries, according to the latest edition of the Henley & Partners Passport Index. 

It shares the sixteenth place with Bulgaria, Croatia and Romania. The city previously held 21st place with visa-free access to only 155 countries.

Japan dethroned Germany and Singapore as the world’s most powerful passport by a hair with visa-free access to 189 territories versus the two countries’ 188.

“South Asia and Southeast Asia remain stable, whilst North Asia and Oceania see significant growth,” said Kate Coddington, assistant professor of geography at Durham University.

Finland, France, Italy, South Korea, Spain and Sweden all tie for third place with visa-free access to 187 countries. The UK and US snagged fourth place with 186 alongside Austria, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway and Portugal whilst Canada, Switzerland, Belgium, Denmark and Ireland are all tied at fifth place with 185.

Conflict-torn Afghanistan and Iraq are the world’s least powerful passports with visa-free access to 30 countries each. They are joined by Sudan, Yemen, Pakistan; Somalia and Syria with visa-free access to 39, 37, 33 and 32 countries respectively in the global bottom five.

The Henley Passport Index is an authoritative passport index deriving exclusive data from the International Air Transport Association.

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