As countries around the world shift their border control to a higher level of safety, the strength of their passports are changing, too. The list of the “best” passports has been compiled by a London-based consulting firm since 2006 and ranks nations by how freely their citizens can explore the world. In other words, countries you can travel to without a visa.
While the USA ranked top in 2014 and 2015, this year it has dropped to fourth place. Countries are most likely afraid of the impending Trump rule that will have US citizens seeking refugee status from February next year.
Anyways, in first place is Germany, but are you even surprised? Countries obviously want to get into their good books because, well, they are pretty much dominating the world right now, just not in the way Hitler envisioned.
With a German passport, travelers can enter 177 out of 218 countries and territories without a visa, according to the 2016 Visa Restrictions Index.
Holding its second-place position for the second year running, a Swedish passport gives you access yo 176 countries. One more and you’re there, guys!
Tied for third place with access to 175 countries are Finland, France, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom.
So, basically, Northern and Western European countries are super privileged when it comes to international travel (although, being a part of the European Union shouldn’t count as ‘privilege’ because they’re all in it together, kind of.
Fourth place: US, Belgium, Denmark and Netherlands.
Japan and South Korea were once in the top three, but have slid down to fifth and sixth place respectively.
Then, you have the worst passports and they are all Middle East countries:
In third last is Iraq with 30 available countries, followed by Pakistan with only 29 countries and then there is Afghanistan whose citizens can only visit 25 countries without a passport.
Let me guess, you’re wondering where South Africa sits, hey? Well, we’re smack bang in the middle. In 2006 we were rated the 36th best passport in the world, and now, we are 54th, just two down from last year.
You can see it all HERE.
[source: cnn]
