India secures 80th rank on Henley Passport Index

1. But is among the worst countries for allowing visa-free entry

India has climbed seven places on Henley Passport Index 2023 to 80th rank from 87 last year though the number of countries allowed visa-free access to Indian passport holders remain unchanged.

The Henley Passport Index is the ranking of all the world’s passports according to the number of destinations their holders can access without a prior visa. The index includes 199 different passports and 227 different travel destinations. The Index is brought out by Henley and Partners.

In 2014, India ranked 76 with 52 countries allowing Indian passport holders visa free access but its performance has not been linear. It ranked 88 in 2015 (visa free access to 51 countries), 85 in 2016, 87 in 2017, 81 in 2018, 82 in 2019 and 2020, and 81 in 2021.

Singapore on top

Japan, which occupied the top position on the Henley Passport Index for five years, dropped to the third place. It was replaced by Singapore, which is now officially the most powerful passport in the world, with its citizens able to visit 192 travel destinations out of 227 around the world visa-free. Germany, Italy, and Spain occupy the second place. Alongside Japan at the third position are Austria, Finland, France, Luxembourg, South Korea, and Sweden. The U.K. climbed two places to occupy the fourth place, while the U.S. continued its decade-long slide down the index, dropping two places to the eighth spot. Both the U.K. and the U.S. jointly held the first place on the index nearly 10 years ago in 2014

Henley & Partners also conducted an exclusive new research resulting in the Henley Openness Index which measures how many nations does a country allow visa-free access to. Here, India was ranked 94 out of a total of 97 ranks for allowing only four countries visa-free access. At the bottom of the Index were four countries for scoring zero for not permitting visa-free access for any passport — namely, Afghanistan, North Korea, Papua New Guinea, and Turkmenistan.

 

‘Most open’ countries

The Top 20 ‘most open’ countries are all small island nations or African states, except for Cambodia. There are 12 completely open countries that offer visa-free or visa-on-arrival entry to all 198 passports in the world (not counting their own), namely: Burundi, Comoro Islands, Djibouti, Guinea-Bissau, Maldives, Micronesia, Mozambique, Rwanda, Samoa, Seychelles, Timor-Leste, and Tuvalu.

 

Gulf Cooperation Council countries have generally displayed higher-than-average shifts towards increased openness, in particular, the UAE’s openness score increased from 58 to 80 since 2018 (22 points) and Oman’s leapt from 71 to 106 (35 points) over the same period.

 

2023 Henley Passport Index

As of 19 July 2023, there was a major change in the rankings, with almost all countries in the top 10 declining by at least one place. The Singaporean passport offers holders visa-free or visa-on-arrival access to a total of 192 countries and territories, followed by the German, Italian and Spanish passports, each offering 190 visa-free or visa-on-arrival countries and territories to its holders. These rankings were subsequently followed by the Austrian, Finnish, French, Japanese, Luxembourgeois, South Korean and Swedish passports, each offering visa-free or visa-on-arrival travel to 189 countries and territories.

 

Notably, the ranking of the United States increased by one place, decreasing in its visa-free or visa-on-arrival access from 187 to 184 countries and territories.[20] The ranking of the Australian and Canadian passports did not change in rank, despite decreasing in their visa-free or visa-on-arrival access from 187 to 186 and 186 to 185, respectively. .[21]

 

Of the five countries of the Five Nations Passport Group (Australia, Canada, New Zealand, United Kingdom, United States), the British passport offers highest visa-free or visa-on-arrival access (188 countries and territories), while the United States passport offers the lowest visa-free or visa-on-arrival access. In South America, the Chilean passport offers its holders visa-free or visa-on-arrival access to 174 countries and territories, the highest in the region, followed by the Argentine passport which offers its holders visa-free or visa-on-arrival access to 169 countries and territories and the Brazilian passport which offers its holders visa-free or visa-on-arrival access to 168 countries.

 

An Afghan passport has once again been labelled by the index as the least powerful passport in the world, with its nationals only able to visit 27 destinations visa-free.[22][23] This was followed by the Iraqi passport at 29 destinations and the Syrian passport at 30 destinations.

2023 rank	Passport issuing country	Visa-free destinations
1	Singapore	192
2	Germany	190
	Italy	190
	Spain	190
3	Austria	189
	Finland	189
	France	189
	Japan	189
	Luxembourg	189
	South Korea	189
	Sweden	189
4	Denmark	188
	Ireland	188
	Netherlands	188
	United Kingdom	188
5	Belgium	187
	Czech Republic	187
	Malta	187
	New Zealand	187
	Norway	187
	Portugal	187
	Switzerland	187
6	Australia	186
	Hungary	186
	Poland	186
7	Canada	185
	Greece	185
8	Lithuania	184
	United States	184
9	Latvia	183
	Slovakia	183
	Slovenia	183
10	Estonia	182
	Iceland	182
11	Liechtenstein	180
	Malaysia	180
12	Cyprus	179
	United Arab Emirates	179
13	Bulgaria	176
	Monaco	176
	Romania	176
14	Croatia	175
15	Chile	174
16	San Marino	172
17	Andorra	170
	Hong Kong	170
18	Argentina	169
19	Brazil	168
20	Brunei	166
21	Barbados	163
22	Israel	159
	Mexico	159
23	Bahamas	156
24	Seychelles	155
	Saint Kitts and Nevis	155
25	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	154
	Vatican City	154
26	Uruguay	153
27	Costa Rica	151
28	Antigua and Barbuda	150
	Trinidad and Tobago	150
29	Mauritius	148
30	Grenada	146
	Saint Lucia	146
	Ukraine	146
31	Macau	144
	Panama	144
	Taiwan	144
32	Dominica	143
	Paraguay	143
33	Peru	136
34	Serbia	137
35	Guatemala	134
36	Honduras	133
37	Colombia	132
	El Salvador	132
	Solomon Islands	132
38	Samoa	131
39	Tonga	130
40	Nicaragua	127
	Tuvalu	127
	Venezuela	127
41	North Macedonia	125
42	Montenegro	124
44	Kiribati	123
45	Marshall Islands	122
46	Moldova	120
47	Palau	119
48	Albania	118
49	Bosnia and Herzegovina	117
50	Micronesia	116
51	Georgia	115
52	Russia	114
53	Turkey	112
54	Belize	104
55	South Africa	103
56	Qatar	102
57	Vanuatu	101
58	Kuwait	100
59	East Timor	94
60	Ecuador	92
61	Maldives	91
62	Nauru	89
63	Fiji	88
64	Bahrain	87
	Botswana	87
65	Guyana	86
	Jamaica	86
66	Saudi Arabia	83
67	Oman	82
	Papua New Guinea	82
68	China	80
	Thailand	80
69	Belarus	79
70	Bolivia	78
	Lesotho	78
	Namibia	78
71	Suriname	77
72	Kazakhstan	76
73	Eswatini	75
74	Malawi	74
75	Kenya	73
76	Tanzania	72
77	Indonesia	70
	Tunisia	70
	Zambia	70
78	Azerbaijan	69
	Dominican Republic	69
	Gambia	69
79	Uganda	67
80	Philippines	66
	Zimbabwe	66
	India	60
81	Armenia	65
	Cape Verde	65
	Morocco	65
	Sierra Leone	65
82	Ghana	63
	Kyrgyzstan	63
83	Cuba	62
84	Mongolia	61
	Mozambique	61
	Rwanda	61
85	Benin	60
86	São Tomé and Príncipe	59
	Tajikistan	59
	Uzbekistan	59
87	Mauritania	58
88	Burkina Faso	57
89	Gabon	56
	Ivory Coast	56
	Senegal	56
90	Equatorial Guinea	55
	Guinea	55
	Madagascar	55
	Vietnam	55
91	Algeria	54
	Cambodia	54
	Togo	54
92	Comoros	53
	Jordan	53
	Mali	53
	Niger	53
93	Bhutan	52
	Central African Republic	52
	Chad	52
	Egypt	52
	Guinea-Bissau	52
	Turkmenistan	52
94	Angola	50
	Burundi	50
	Cameroon	50
	Laos	50
95	Congo	49
	Liberia	49
96	Djibouti	48
	Haiti	48
97	Myanmar	47
98	Ethiopia	46
99	Eritrea	45
	Nigeria	45
	South Sudan	45
100	Iran	44
101	DR Congo	42
	Sudan	42
102	Kosovo	41
	Lebanon	41
103	Libya	40
	North Korea	40
	Sri Lanka	40
104	Bangladesh	39
105	Palestine	38
106	Nepal	36
107	Somalia	35
108	Yemen	34
109	Pakistan	30
	Syria	30
110	Iraq	29
111	Afghanistan	27