Singapore now has most powerful passport in the world, according to latest index

Andrea Saadan
AsiaOne
25 October 2017

It's official: Singaporeans now hold the most powerful passport in the world.

After sharing the top spot with Germany since early this year, Singapore's passport has taken the lead on Passport Index Global Passport Power Rank 2017 with the highest visa-free score of 159 as of Wednesday (Oct 25).

The Passport Index is the world's reference on passports, developed by leading global advisory for residence and citizenship solutions Arton Capital.

The latest ranking comes after Paraguay removed visa requirements for Singaporeans, thus propelling Singapore's passport to the top.

The top 10 most powerful passports in the world have historically been reserved for European nations, with Germany at the top for the past two years, according to PRNewswire.

Other Asian passports that made the top 20 are South Korea, Japan and Malaysia.

Managing Director of Arton Capital's Singapore office the Hon. Philippe May said: "For the first time ever an Asian country has the most powerful passport in the world,"

"It is a testament of Singapore's inclusive diplomatic relations and effective foreign policy."

Over the years, the Passport Index has become a popular online tool to display, sort and rank the world's passports and is the only real-time global ranking of passports.

The Index ranks national passports by the cross-border access they bring, assigning a "visa-free score" according to the number of countries a passport holder can visit visa-free or with visa on arrival.

Below is the new top 10 passport power ranking:

159 - Singapore

158 - Germany

157 - Sweden, South Korea

156 - Denmark, Finland, Italy, France, Spain, Norway, Japan, United Kingdom

155 - Luxemburg, Switzerland, Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Portugal

154 - Malaysia, Ireland, Canada, United States of America

153 - Austria, Greece, New Zealand

152 - Malta, Czech Republic, Iceland

150 - Hungary

149 - Slovenia, Slovakia, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia