When it comes to international travel, the power of a passport cannot be underestimated. After all, it almost single-handedly determines the ease with which its holder can cross borders and explore new horizons.
On Wednesday 31 July, consultancy firm Henley & Partners published its ranking of the world's passports for the third quarter of 2024.
Cyprus has dropped one place to 13th in the Henley Passport Index.
Incidentally, holders of a Cypriot passport can currently travel freely to 178 countries in the world without the need for a visa.
It should be remembered that the data of the consulting company Henley & Partners is based on the indicators of the International Air Transport Association (IATA).
Notably, Singapore has broken away from the six countries that shared the top spot in the Passport Index earlier this year to reclaim the title of the world's most influential passport. Citizens of the Asian city-state can travel visa-free to 195 of the world's 227 destinations.
A group of seven nations - Austria, Finland, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Sweden, South Korea and Ireland - share third place with visa-free access to 191 countries.
The UK is in fourth place, along with Belgium, Denmark, New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland and Denmark, despite having reduced its visa-free access to 190 countries. The United States, on the other hand, continues its decade-long decline in the rankings, dropping to eighth place with visa-free access to only 186 countries.
Afghanistan remains in last place; having lost another destination in the last six months, Afghans can now visit only 26 countries without a visa - the lowest in the 19-year history of the index.
Russia has since signed a visa-free agreement with Malawi, but has dropped six places in the rankings due to the loss of visa-free access to Gabon, Turks and Caicos Islands, Togo and North Macedonia. Russia shares 45th place in the Index with Turkey, whose passports currently give holders visa-free access to 116 countries.
The United Arab Emirates entered the top 10 for the first time, adding 152 countries since the Index's inception in 2006. The UAE reached the current visa-free ranking of 185 countries, moving up from 62nd to 9th place.
The general trend over the past two decades has been one of increasing freedom of movement, with the average number of countries that travellers can access without a visa almost doubling from 58 in 2006 to 111 in 2024. However, the gap between the top and bottom passports is now stark, with citizens of Singapore (ranked 1st) able to visit 169 more countries than citizens of Afghanistan (ranked 103rd with 26 visa-free countries)," said Christian Kälin, Chairman of Henley & Partners and creator of the Passport Index concept.
The Henley Passport Index is a ranking of all passports worldwide according to the number of destinations their holders can access without a visa, based on exclusive data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA).
The index compares the visa-free access of passports from 199 countries to 227 tourist destinations. If a visa is not required or if a visa on arrival, visitor's permit or electronic travel authorisation (ETA) can be obtained on entry to the destination, the passport is rated '1'. If a visa is required or if the passport holder is required to obtain a government-approved electronic visa (e-visa) before departure, the passport is given a score of '0'. The total score for each passport is equal to the number of visa-free destinations.
The study compares the visa-free or visa-on-arrival scores of 163 countries based on the Henley & Partners Passport Index and the Institute for Economics and Peace's Global Peace Index for 2024. This index assesses three factors: public safety, ongoing conflict (domestic and international) and the degree of militarisation.