Have you ever thought about having a different passport so you wouldn’t need to get a visa to enter a country or territory? You’re not alone. But just how powerful (or weak) is the Philippine passport?
The Henley Passport Index releases a list of the most powerful passports in the world. According to its website, it’s the “original ranking of all the world’s passports and the only passport index that is based on IATA data.”
IATA stands for International Air Transport Association. The data from IATA is considered the “most accurate travel information database,” used as a reference by the research team of Henley & Partners.
The Henley Passport Index is updated quarterly and is used by business travelers, investors, and for emigration planning. It also serves as an indicator of economic inequality and wealth disparity, according to the Computer Science portal geeksforgeeks.org.
The index was started 18 years ago by Henley and Partners, an immigration consultancy firm. According to its website, Henley and Partners is the “global leader in residence and citizenship by investment.” They claim that the Henley Passport Index is the “original, authoritative ranking of all the world’s passports according to the number of destinations their holders can access without a prior visa.”
The list includes 199 passports and 227 destinations. Passport rankings depend on the number of countries it has access to. In the latest index, Singapore tops the Global Passport Ranking with access to 193 countries. Japan follows closely in second place with country access to 192.
Seven countries share third place with access to 191 countries: Finland, France, Germany, Italy, South Korea, Spain, and Sweden. In fourth place, six countries have access to 190 countries: Austria, Denmark, Ireland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, and the United Kingdom.
Tied for fifth place are four countries with access to 189 countries: Belgium, Malta, Norway, and Portugal. Australia, New Zealand, and Switzerland share sixth place with access to 188 countries. In seventh place, five countries have access to 187 countries: Canada, Czechia, Greece, Poland, and the United States.
Hungary is in eighth place with access to 186 countries. Lithuania is in ninth place with access to 185 countries.
Tied for tenth place with access to 184 countries are Estonia, Latvia, Slovakia, and Slovenia.
The Philippines is in 75th place with access to 66 countries.
The Philippine passport ranking has fluctuated over the years, reaching a high of 62nd in 2009 and lows of 80th in 2015 and 2022.
Among the countries at the bottom of the list are Afghanistan (No. 105), Syria (No. 104), Iraq (No. 103), Pakistan (No. 102), Yemen (No. 101), Somalia (No. 100), tied at No. 99 are the Palestinian Territory and Nepal, and at No. 98 are North Korea, Libya, and Bangladesh.