Good news for Australian passport holders
If you think all passports are made equal, then you’d be sorely mistaken. Some passports are by their very nature more powerful than others, which can be good or bad news depending on where you’re from and where you’re going.
The Henley Passport Index ranks the world’s passports from strongest to weakest based on something called a “visa-free score”, which is the amount of countries a passport holder can travel too, without having a visa.
Germany has long held the title of being the world’s most powerful passport with a visa-free score of 177, with Singapore and Switzerland not far behind on 176 each.
And there was a spot of good news for Aussie passport holders in 2018. Our passport has officially climbed a spot, with our visa-free score rising from 170 to 171.
This is thanks to Qatar waiving visa requirements for Australians, letting holders of an Australian passport spend up to 30 days in the country without a visa.
And you’d want it to be as powerful as possible – the cost of a 10-year Australian adult passport went up at the start of this year from $277 to $282.
Most powerful passports
1. Germany (177)
2. Singapore, Switzerland (176)
3. Denmark, Finland, France, Italy, Japan, Norway, Sweden, UK (175)
4. Austria, Belgium, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Spain, US (174)
5. Ireland, Portugal, South Korea (173)
Least powerful passports
1. Afghanistan (24)
2. Iraq (27)
3. Syria (28)
4. Pakistan (30)
5. Somalia (32)