Taiwan passport holders have visa-free access to 144 countries and territories around the world, ranking it 31st in the latest Henley Passport Index published on Tuesday.
Taiwan’s passport climbed four places from 35th in the previous survey issued by the London-based consulting firm Henley & Partners in January, putting it in a tie with Panama and Macau in 31st place.
Singapore topped the rankings, with its passport giving holders visa-free access to 192 nations in the world.
Photo: CNA
Germany shared second place with Italy and Spain with access to 190 destinations, while Japan, after ranking first for five years, fell two places to third, allowing its passport holders access to 189 countries without a visa.
Multiple countries can hold the same spot in the rankings in the case of a tie. As a result, although Taiwan’s passport ranked 31st, a total of 65 countries had passports with more visa-free access.
In the previous survey, though Taiwan ranked 35th, behind 64 other countries, and its passport had visa-free access to 145 destinations.
The Henley Passport Index compares the visa-free access of 199 different passports to 227 travel destinations. Its first index was issued in 2006.
Austria, Finland, France, Luxembourg, South Korea and Sweden shared third place with Japan, while Denmark, Ireland, the Netherlands, and the UK ranked fourth with 188 destinations.
Belgium, the Czech Republic, Malta, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal and Switzerland took the fifth place in the index.
Meanwhile, China ranked 63rd — with a total of 112 countries ahead of it — with visa-free access to 80 countries.
Afghanistan was at the bottom on the index with only 27 destinations offering visa-free travel to its passport holders.
The Henley Passport Index is based on exclusive and official data from the International Air Transport Association.
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