Arton Capital has published its global passport index 2022 rankings of the most powerful passports in the world. It has named the United Arab Emirates (UAE) visa the best travel document in the world with visa-free access to over 121 countries. The passport holds a visa-on-arrival facility for 59 countries and requires a visa for 89 countries. By Preeti Kulkarni
India ranks 69th on this list. According to Arton Capital, Indians are permitted to travel to only 24 countries without a visa. They have a visa-on-arrival facility for 48 nations and require a visa for 126 countries. Other countries sharing the position with India are The Gambia, Ghana, Uzbekistan and Tanzania.
Strongest and weakest passports in the world
The South Korean passport holds a second rank according to Arton Capital, and the country shares the rank with 10 other European countries — Germany, Sweden, Finland, Luxembourg, Spain, France, Italy, Netherlands, Austria and Switzerland. The US has bagged the third rank along with Denmark, Belgium, Portugal, Norway, Poland, Ireland and New Zealand.
Afghanistan holds the weakest passport, with only 38 countries on its visa-free list. Other nations with poor travel document include Pakistan, Syria and Iraq.
Most powerful passports: Method employed by Arton Capital to compute passport index?
Arton Capital lists a total of 199 passports which include the 193 United Nations member countries and six territories (ROC Taiwan, Macao (SAR China), Hong Kong (SAR China), Kosovo, Palestinian Territory and the Vatican).
According to Arton Capital, “Data is based on official information provided by governments, updated in real-time with intelligence obtained through crowdsourcing and enhanced with proprietary research from highly credible sources.”
Further explaining their unique technique, Arton Capital claims that a three-tier method is applied to determine the individual rank of each passport.
First, the Mobility Score (MS), which includes visa-free (VF), visa on arrival (VOA), eTA and eVisa (if issued within 3 days) is assessed; second, the VF portion of their score vs VOA; third, the United Nations Development Programme Human Development Index 2018 (UNDP HDI) is used as a tiebreaker.
The UNDP HDI is a significant measure of the country’s perception abroad.
Arton Capital Passport Index Vs. Henley Passport Index 2022
For the uninitiated, the Henley Passport Index 2022, which is considered one of the most reliable and authoritative lists, has published different rankings. According to the Henley Passport Index 2022, Japan bagged the number one position followed by Singapore and South Korea which shared a second position rank. The UAE, which tops the Arton Capital Passport Index, ranked 21st on Henley’s index.
This is due to the different methodologies used by both indices. While Arton Capital, as mentioned above, uses data from 199 total nations, Henley covers 227 countries.
Check out the complete ranking by Arton Capital here.
(Main and featured image credit: ZQ Lee/Unsplash)
Related: Places In India Where Even Indians Require Permission To Visit
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Answer: UAE, Japan, South Korea, the US, Germany, Sweden, Finland, Spain, France, the Netherlands are the most powerful passports worldwide.
Answer: According to Henley Passport Index 2022, Japan is the best passport to have, while the Arton Capital Passport Index names the UAE as the most powerful passport.
Answer: UAE passport is the best according to the Arton Capital as it has an access to over 121 countries. The passport holds a visa-on-arrival facility for 59 countries and requires a visa for 89 countries.
After completing her PG in New Media from the Asian College of Journalism, Preeti worked in a daily and a magazine before finding her calling in digital journalism. A lover of single malts and an avid pop culture junkie, you can catch her at the movies on weekends or binge-watching the latest shows on OTT when she is not busy preparing her toddler for his Hogwarts letter.
