Italian passport is the "strongest" in the world, opens doors to 194 visa free destinations
The Italian passport is confirmed as one of the most powerful in the world, but not enough to be the most powerful
The latest geopolitical developments gave the final push, Italian passport is (ex aequo) the strongest in the world. The 2024 update of the Henley Passport Index marks the leap forward of the Italian passport to the top step of the podium, a position shared with France, Germany, Japan, Singapore and Spain.
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The incidence of the most influential or powerful passports in the world is calculated by the Henley & Partners since 2006. The renowned citizenship consulting firm offers its index every year taking into account sociological, economic and geopolitical changes.
The best bonuses
Until last year, the lone first place was Japan's. The Rising Sun passport granted visa-free access to 193 nations. This year the number rose to 194.
The Italian performance is the best of all those occupying the first position. In the past year there have been 5 nations who have opened their doors to Italian citizens, among them the most important news was China, followed by the Kenya.
The ranking of the most powerful passports in 2024
Ranked first with 194 countries allowing visa-free access quote there are, in addition to Italy's, the passports of France, Germany, Japan, Singapore, and Spain. Analyzing in detail, the differences are only between the EU area countries and Japan.
In second position with "only" 193 nations accessible there are that of Finland, Sweden and South Korea. Completing the podium with 192 visa-free nations are Austria, Denmark, the Netherlands and Ireland
The Italian passport had stood on the podium in 2021, and then take the wooden medal in 2023.
A nice feature of the report is one that allows you to compare passports and see the complete list of visa-free reachable destinations of individual passports.
The least powerful passports of 2024
Finally, we take a look at which passports are the least relevant in the world, namely. those giving automatic access rights in fewer than 40 countries around the world. If the worst passports are still the same the worst are the travel options that travelers with these citizenships have. Gone from last year are North Korea and Nepal, while the blackshirt podium is still made up of Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan, which rises from 27 to 28 nations open to travel, but is by far the worst in the world.