Malaysia’s passport is ranked sixth “most powerful” passport in the world.
Malaysian passport holders can travel to 154 countries without prior organisation of a visa. This puts the country in sixth position as the most powerful passport judged on the amount of free movement the bearer has. This ranking is alongside the United States, Ireland and Canada.
The index has been compiled by Arton Capital, a financial advisory firm. It assesses 193 United Nation countries by what visa requirements they need to travel overseas. Each country is ranked with a “visa-free score”. Calculated by whether the said country needs a visa or if they can obtain one upon arrival.
Singapore has pushed Germany off pole position in this global passport index. Previously Singapore and Germany jointly held this accolade. This has now shifted since Paraguay has altered its visa requirements for Singapore. This is the first time that an Asian country has topped the charts. Travelling to 159 out of 193 countries without the need of a visa, Singaporean passport holders have the most amount of free movement with the most powerful passports.
Following closely behind in second position is Germany with 158 countries. Next is Sweden and South Korean with 157 countries each. Hot on the heels is the UK, Denmark, Finland, Italy, France, Spain, Norway and Japan in fourth position with free movement to 156 countries. Whilst fifth to eight positions feature sixteen countries such as Canada, Ireland, Portugal, and New Zealand with visa-free scores of between 155 to 152 countries.
The only other two Asian countries that feature in the top ten are South Korea (157 countries) and Japan (156 countries) illustrating the sheer strength of Malaysia’s passport. The least powerful passport in the Index is from Afghanistan which allows the bearer to only travel to 22 of the 193 countries without the need of a visa.
