A ranking of the most powerful passports in the world has been compiled

Spain was the leader

In the annual ranking of the “strongest” passports compiled by VisaGuide.World, Spanish was ranked first. It is followed by Singaporean, German, Italian and French passports respectively, rounding out the top five for 2023. Countries of the Schengen Area and the European Union dominate the top 40 rankings.

According to VisaGuide.World, the Spanish passport is the strongest passport in the world with a score of 90.36 as of December 2023. This rating is constantly updated and is compiled every year in December, taking into account many factors, for example, changes in visa policy. To achieve a unique ranking, experts assign a Destination Significance Score (DSS). The DSS is created uniquely by each country based on the entry policy it applies in its passport, GDP, Power Index, Tourism Index and Human Development Index (HDI), among other factors. The DSS is multiplied by the value of the destination country’s visa requirements for the selected passport holders.

Factors such as visa-free entry into other countries, electronic travel authorization (ETA) or visiting a country without a passport also play an important role in compiling the ranking. Different types of visas have less weight in the calculation: on arrival, electronic, embassy or other government-approved visas. A negative indicator is considered to be a ban on a citizen of a country from entering the country.

Since each destination country is assigned a unique DSS, this means that being able to enter a destination with a higher DSS visa-free gives the chosen passport a higher value than visa-free entry into a country with a lower DSS. This results in more accurate rankings for each passport.

After all the factors are calculated, each passport has its own unique value, and no two countries have the same number of “visa-free” destinations, VisaGuide.World explains.

In February 2023, we note that the compiled rating was headed by the Italian passport, it was considered the most influential in Europe and the third most influential in the world.

Let us remind you that Spain now also ranks first in the ranking of the best countries for digital nomads, where some of the criteria take into account the availability of visas, cost of living, comfort level and Internet speed. In addition, Spain also took the first three places in the list of the best cities in the world: Malaga, Alicante and Valencia.