This article was originally published in English
Spain has overtaken Singapore in the ranking of “most powerful” passports, meaning you can visit as many countries as possible without a visa
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Spain has the strongest passport in the world, according to a new index.
The ranking, compiled by visa information website VisaGuide.World, shows Spain has overtaken Singapore, which held the top spot in the popular Henley Passport Index published in October.
At number 15, Japan is the only other non-European country to make it into the top 20 of the VisaGuide index.
Germany takes third place, followed by Italy, France, the Netherlands, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, the Czech Republic, Portugal, Hungary and Luxembourg.
Austria is in 16th place, while Switzerland, Belgium, Ireland and Poland round out the top 20.
How does VisaGuide.World rate passports?
Both the quarterly Henley Passport Index and the VisaGuide.World's Passport Index They examine the number of destinations that passport holders can enter without a visa.
Although he is widely considered an authority on the subject, Henley has not yet released his latest rankings.
In October, the ranking placed Singapore in first place, followed by Japan in second place and Finland, France, Germany, Italy, South Korea, Spain and Sweden in third place.
VisaGuide.World also takes other factors into account and calculates a score for the importance of the travel destination.
The assessment takes into account the type of entry requirements a country applies to the passport: visa exemption, ETA, visa on arrival, e-visa, embassy approved visa, travel without a passport or entry ban. Points are also awarded for the country's GDP, global power and tourism development.
Entering a country with a high target value without a visa will give your passport more points in the index than entering a country with a low target value.
Where can Spanish passport holders travel without a visa?
As of December 2023, Anyone who has a Spanish passport can travel to 160 countries without a visa.
While Singapore citizens can travel to 164 countries, Spain gets more points for the many places you can visit with your EU ID alone.
Singaporean passport holders have visa-free access to 15 countries that Spain does not have. These are Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Ivory Coast, Cuba, Djibouti, Ghana, Guinea, Indonesia, Kenya, Laos, Myanmar, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe.
However, there are 11 countries and territories that Spanish passport holders can enter without a visa: these are the Falkland Islands, the Marshall Islands, Palau, São Tomé and Principe, the Seychelles, the Solomon Islands, East Timor, Tonga, Tuvalu, Ukraine and Venezuela.
VisaGuide.World does not provide the destination importance value for every country, but this can also influence the index result.
Germany has visa-free access to the same 160 countries as Spain (the two countries accept each other), but Spain enjoys the ease of being able to present a visa upon arrival in Papua New Guinea and Togo, while German passport holders must apply for one electronic visa before departure.