Did you know that the Queen of England doesn’t have a passport? You may be wondering why, and the answer is because she doesn’t need one. British passports are issued in the name of the Queen, and therefore when she travels there’s no need for the silly book of papers. For the rest of us- we need our passports to go anywhere. While some passports allow you to quite literally just go about anywhere, others don’t. Each year a new list comes out, keeping track of the world’s most powerful passports- based on Visa free travel and there’s a new top country…
Toppling previous champions Germany and Sweden, Singapore moves to number one in the world. The Singaporean passport now allows Visa free entry into 159 countries, moving one above Germany, which has dropped to number two after Singapore lost it’s restrictions from Paraguay.
Sweden and South Korea clock in at the third spot, with 157 Visa free countries, with: Denmark, Finland, Italy, France, Spain, Norway, Japan, United Kingdom a close fourth at 156. It’s a tight race up at the top, with each of these countries being obvious candidates. Falling just one Visa free country shy, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Portugal round up the list for the fifth most powerful passport on earth.
At this point, you’re likely wondering: where’s the United States of America? Truth be told, the global powerhouse has dropped in the rankings, though we won’t speculate why. Recent Visa free revocations from Turkey and the Central African Republic catapulted the U.S. down to number six, where it joins Ireland, Malaysia and Canada. On a separate note, if you’d like one, Qantas would like to buy you a U.S. Passport.
Rounding out the top ten we find Australia, Greece, New Zealand at number seven with 153 Visa free countries, a number we expect to rise- since just about everyone wants to go to Australia or New Zealand these days. Malta, Czech Republic, Iceland at number eight, Hungary number nine and eastern European stalwarts Slovenia, Slovakia, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia at number ten. We cant wait to see where things go. Whatever country you’re in, collect as many stamps as you can.
HT: CNN
Any surprises on the list?
