The latest results from the Henley Passport Index provide fascinating insights into a world characterized by extraordinary upheaval and offer a revealing look at what lies ahead.
The Kenyan passport has dropped two places in the global mobility ranking to position 73 but maintained its spot as the eighth most powerful in the continent.
For the fifth year running, Japan crowns the Henley Passport Index, which is based on exclusive and official data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA).
The index measures the number of countries that a person holding a Kenyan passport can visit without having a visa or the nations where they can get a visa on arrival.
Mauritius, which is ranked 34th globally emerged top in Africa in the annual rankings followed by South Africa (53), Botswana (63), Namibia (67), Lesotho (69), eSwatini (71) and Malawi (72). Tanzania emerged in position 74 with Zambia and Uganda coming in at number 75 and 78, respectively.
Japanese citizens are now able to visit an astonishing 193 destinations out of 227 around the world visa-free, while South Koreans and Singaporeans, whose countries are tied in 2nd place on the index, enjoy a visa-free/visa-on-arrival score of 192. Germany and Spain are joint 3rd, with visa-free access to 190 destinations worldwide.
The UK and the US remain in 6th and 7th places, with scores of 187 and 186, respectively, and it appears increasingly unlikely that either country will ever regain the top spot on the index which they jointly held nearly a decade ago in 2014.
With global travel now at around 75% of pre-pandemic levels, those with the opportunity to do so appear to be embracing what has been termed ‘revenge travel’. But deeper analysis of the index reveals the darker side to this optimistic picture. Afghanistan remains firmly at the bottom of the index, with a score of just 27 — 166 fewer visa-free destinations than Japan, which represents the widest global mobility gap in the index’s 18-year history.
Benefits of greater visa-free access to economic output
On a macro level, the new study by Henley & Partners reveals that just 6% of passports worldwide give their holders visa-free access to more than 70% of the global economy. And only 17% of countries give their passport holders visa-free access to more than four-fifths of the world’s 227 destinations.
With cutting-edge expert commentary and historical data spanning over 18 years, the Henley Passport Index is the original ranking of all the world’s passports according to the number of destinations their holders can access without a prior visa. Ranking is based on exclusive and official data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA), which maintains the world’s largest and most accurate database of travel information, and it is enhanced by extensive, ongoing research by the Henley & Partners Research Department.