The Essentials

Countries with the Most Powerful Passports

What makes a passport powerful? It all gets down to where it can take you with the least amount of bureaucracy and paperwork — as in required visas.

 

Most folks think countries like Switzerland would have powerful passports, but the Swiss don’t make the top ten.

 

The most powerful passport, which offers visa-free travel to 193 countries around the world, is Japan. It’s followed by Singapore, Germany and Spain.

 

Finland and Luxembourg round out the top five with 189 destinations recognizing the passports without additional documents. The U.S. comes in at number seven.

 

And the least powerful passports are North Korea, Somalia and Yemen.