Australia has continued to climb up the rungs of global passport power, making its way to the top five group of countries with the most visa-free access to destinations around the world.

According to the 2024 Henley Passport Index rankings released on Tuesday, Australia now comes in fifth place — alongside Portugal — for the world’s most powerful passports, jumping up from its number six spot last year, and eighth place in 2022.

The annual index has been curated by British consultancy Henley & Partners based on official data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA) since 2006.

It ranks 199 different passports according to the number of destinations out of 227 their holders can travel to without prior visa authorisation.

In fifth place, Australians now enjoy visa-free access to 189 destinations, up from 186 last year. This includes entry ports with visas on arrival, visitor permits, and electronic travel authorities.

The complete list can be viewed here.

World’s strongest and weakest passports

Singapore retained its title as the world’s most powerful passport, continuing to be the only holder of the top spot for two years in a row, and setting a new record with 195 visa-free travel destinations.

Trailing behind in second place were Spain, France, Italy, Germany, and Japan, with a score of 192.

And in a narrow third place came an “unprecedented” group of seven countries together — Austria, Finland, Ireland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, South Korea, and Sweden — each with visa-free access to 191 global destinations.

In fourth spot were the United Kingdom, Belgium, Denmark, New Zealand, Norway, and Switzerland, achieving a visa-free score of 190.

Meanwhile, Afghanistan continues to fare as the world’s weakest passport, with its citizens only being accepted by 26 destinations worldwide without a visa.

Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Pakistan, and Somalia took out the five lowest spots after Afghanistan, with visa-free access scores of 28, 31, 33, 33, and 35 respectively.  

Venezuela, Yemen, Nigeria, Syria, and Bangladesh are among the nations that have seen the most significant decline in passport power over the past 10 years, brought on largely by political turmoil, deteriorating economic conditions and civil instability.

Travel freedom improves but so does disparity

While most countries (and destinations like special administrative regions and territories) have been on an upward trajectory of passport power, the gap between the most and least powerful, or the “global mobility gap”, is now at its largest.

This is influenced by factors like visa reciprocity, meaning how many nationalities a country is willing to grant visas compared to the visa-free access it enjoys itself, tourism policies, and economic prosperity.

“Nations with higher visa-free scores tend to enjoy greater GDP per capita, increased foreign direct investment, and more robust international trade relationships,” Henley & Partners CEO Dr. Juerg Steffen said.

African nations had the highest rate of visa rejections by the European Union, with research finding the poorer an applicant’s country of origin, the more the likelihood of rejection.

“Africans face a triple whammy: lower passport power, higher visa rejection rates, and consequently, limited economic mobility,” Professor Mehari Taddele Maru, who conducted the research on visa biases, said.

According to the Henley Openness Index, the 20 countries most welcoming to foreign nationals were small island nations or lesser developed countries, whose own citizens had low travel mobility.

The five countries with the biggest difference between their own visa-free access and their openness to other nations are Somalia, Sri Lanka, Djibouti, Burundi, and Nepal, while those with the least discrepancy are Singapore, Bahamas, Malaysia, Hong Kong (SAR China), and Barbados.

Australia also had amongst the highest disparities in the travel freedom its citizens enjoy versus the visa-free access provided to other nationalities.