Most Powerful Passes 2023: USA ahead of Romania, Canada and Malaysia
The United Arab Emirates will issue the best passports in the world in 2023, according to a new study.
Passports from the United Arab Emirates, Luxembourg and Switzerland are the most powerful in the world, according to a new ranking by Nomad Capitalist, a company with offices in the US and five other countries that helps clients relocate abroad.
The company analyzed data on 199 passport-issuing countries and territories to create the ranking.
The Emirati passport jumped a whopping 31 places from last year’s ranking, which named passports from Luxembourg the strongest in the world.
Passports from the small, landlocked European country, which sits between Belgium, France and Germany and is in some ways considered the richest nation in the world, fell to second place in the 2023 rankings.
The United States ranked 43rd, with US passports cited as less powerful than those issued by Romania, Canada and Malaysia.
Most of Nomad Capitalist’s ranking is based on visa-free travel – that is, the number of countries that a passport allows its holder to enter without a visa.
This meant that the top of the rankings was dominated by European countries, with EU, EEA and Swiss citizens free to work and travel within each other’s countries.
But other factors — including the taxes imposed on citizens of each passport-issuing country, how a country is perceived around the world, and the personal freedom of citizens in each country — also played into Nomad’s rankings Capitalist also plays a role.
The ability of passport holders to hold dual citizenship was also taken into account.
Although the UAE’s score in Nomad Capitalist’s freedom measure fell slightly between 2022 and 2023, its lack of income taxes for citizens coupled with a sharp increase in the number of countries visa-free passport holders can visit helped it to top the chart.
The UAE was also named the world’s most powerful passport in a separate ranking published by Arton Capital in January.
According to the Nomad Capitalist index, UAE passport holders can visit 181 countries visa-free, more than any other country in the ranking. Last year, Nomad Capitalist found that a UAE passport only allowed visa-free access to 175 countries.
While US passport holders can visit an impressive 173 countries visa-free, the US lost points thanks to strict rules that mean citizens must pay US taxes even if they live abroad.
It’s an issue that has prompted a quarter of American expats to consider renouncing their US citizenship, according to a 2022 survey.
The US also received average ratings in Nomad Capitalist’s 2023 ranking for its global perception as well as for the personal freedom afforded to its citizens and travelers and expats in the country.
The US slipped down two places in 2023 compared to the previous year.
At the bottom of the scale, Afghanistan was named the weakest passport, a position it retained last year thanks to the limited number of countries its holders can visit without a visa and low levels of personal freedom in the country.
Yemen, Iraq, Pakistan and Eritrea rounded out the last five.
Learn how to navigate and build trust in your organization with The Trust Factor, a weekly newsletter exploring what leaders need to succeed. Login here.
