Thinking about going overseas? Well, you can feel confident in your travels, because Australia has one of the most powerful passports in the world. The Henley Passport Index, the original and authoritative ranking of the world’s passports, released their rankings for 2023. It assesses the number of destinations that can be accessed without a prior visa. It takes data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA), and includes 199 different passports to 227 travel destinations.
This year, Australia came in 8th place, with access to 185 destinations. Joining us in 8th place are our friends from Canada, Greece and Malta. New Zealand did slightly better, with access to 186 destinations.
Japan reached the top spot for the fifth year in a row. They’re able to visit 8 more countries than us, with visa-free access to 193 destinations, or 85 per cent of the world.
The top 10 countries are:
- Japan (193)
- Singapore, South Korea (192)
- Germany, Spain (190)
- Finland, Italy, Luxembourg (189)
- Austria, Denmark, Netherlands, Sweden (188)
- France, Ireland, Portugal, United Kingdom (187)
- Belgium, Czech Republic, New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland, United States (186)
- Australia, Canada, Greece, Malta (185)
- Hungary, Poland (184)
- Lithuania, Slovakia (183)
The least powerful passports were Syria, with access to 30 places, Iraq, with access to 29 places, and Afghanistan, in 109th place, and access to only 27 destinations.
For the full list, click here.