South Korean passports took second place in the global passport power rankings. They moved up one spot from third place last year.
The number of countries that give visa-free entry to Korean passport holders stood at 193, which means Korean passports claim second place, tied with Finland and Sweden, according to the World Passport Index for the first quarter of 2024 released by British international exchange company Henry & Partners on Jan. 10 (local time), based on data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA) since 2006. It ranks passport power by summing up the number of countries that passport holders from a given country can visit visa-free.
After falling to 13th place in 2013, South Korea’s passport power has been consistently ranked in the second or third positions since 2018, hovering around 190 countries.
This year, six countries -- Japan, Singapore, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain -- tied for first place. Their citizens can enjoy visa-free access to 194 countries. It is the first time these countries have tied for the top spot since the index began in 2006.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has made the biggest jump in the Index over the past decade. Ranked 55th in 2014 (77 countries), the UAE passport has added 106 countries in 10 years, ascending to 11th place this year. The Chinese passport added 41 countries in 10 years, rising to No. 82 this year.
The United States and the United Kingdom, which tied for the top spot in 2014, have been on the decline since then. This year, British passports were tied for fourth place with Norway, Belgium, Luxembourg, and Portugal with visa-free access to 191 countries, while the United States was tied for seventh place with Canada and Hungary with 188 countries.
North Korea was tied for 97th with Bangladesh at 42 and Syria (29 countries and 103rd place) and Iraq (31 countries and 102nd place) were at the bottom of the list.