What makes a passport powerful?

Lonely Planet mentions how, “the more countries a passport will give you access to without getting a visa, the higher the visa-free score and the more powerful it is deemed to be.”

So if you’re passport allows you to enter a country without a visa, it makes it powerful. Simple enough..

With this way for scoring the power of a country’s passport, it can’t be too hard to figure out which one ranks at the top.

I never really thought much about this topic but I always figured that the U.S. had to rank at or near the top. Well no, the United States does not have the most powerful passport in the world, but who does?

Singapore.

Until a day or two back, Singapore and Germany were tied for the top spot, allowing for visa- free access to 158 countries. When Paraguay got rid of the need for a visa for Singaporean residents, it made their country the top dog.

A Singaporean passport now allows for visa- free access to 159 countries.

So what’s the least powerful passport? That would be Afghanistan which allows citizens’ entry, visa- free into a measly 22 countries.

As for the U.S., American passports allow for visa- free entry into 154 countries. The U.S. is tied with Canada, Ireland and Malaysia.

Find out more from Lonely Planet here.