Irish Passport ranked third most powerful in the world

The index, which is based on exclusive and official data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA), ranks the Irish Passport as joint third most powerful in the world, alongside Austria, Denmark and Netherlands, due to its facilitation of visa-free access to 192 destinations out of 227 globally.

Four EU member states — France, Germany, Italy, and Spain — join Japan and Singapore in boasting the most powerful passports in the world, with their citizens able to visit 194 destinations out of 227 around the globe visa-free.

The two Asian nations have dominated 1st place on the index (which ranks all the world’s passports according to the number of destinations their holders can access without a prior visa) for the past five years.

Asian tiger South Korea joins Finland and Sweden in 2nd place with visa-free travel to 193 destinations.

Ireland, as aforementioned, shares third place with the Austria, Denmark and the Netherlands.

The British Passport climbed up two ranks to 4th place with visa-free access to 191 destinations compared to just 188 a year ago.

It has been a decade since the UK and the US jointly held 1st place on the index in 2014. The US retains its 7th place with access to 188 destinations without requiring a visa in advance.

Australia and New Zealand passport holders both improved their ranking to sit in 6th place with 189 visa-free destinations,

Dr. Christian H. Kaelin, Chairman of Henley & Partners and the inventor of the passport index concept, says although the general trend over the history of the 19-year-old ranking has been towards greater travel freedom, the global mobility gap between those at the top and bottom of the index is now wider than ever.

“The average number of destinations travelers are able to access visa-free has nearly doubled from 58 in 2006 to 111 in 2024. However, as we enter the new year, the top-ranked countries are now able to travel to a staggering 166 more destinations visa-free than Afghanistan, which sits at the bottom of the ranking with access to just 28 countries without a visa.”

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