Any international traveler or semi-intelligent person over the age of 10 (who is not Mos Def) knows that if you want to travel to another country (legally, anyway), you need a passport. You might not think about it while you’re trudging through customs praying for a quickly moving line and a nearby bathroom after a long flight, but the passport you throw down at the counter may carry more or less weight than you think. Passports actually have an international power index that’s based on how much they cost to issue, how easy they are to obtain and how many countries they’ll get you into without a visa. On the low end of the spectrum, passports from places like Palestine and South Sudan will only get you into 28 of the UN’s recognized 206 countries. That’s … not good. Here, in ascending order, are the countries on the opposite end of the scale, the heavy hitters, the 15 most powerful passports in the world, according to a recent GoEuro study.
15. Norway
First on the list is Norway, a country that is at once both stunningly beautiful and stunningly boring, it understands the needs of its citizens to travel abroad from time to time. A Norwegian passport gains a holder access to 171 countries without a visa for the bargain price of $59 US.
14. Italy
Next up is Italy, a country that’s so renowned for its earthly delights we’re surprised anyone wants to ever leave it. An Italian passport will get you in the door of 172 countries visa-free but will cost about $135 US, which is pretty pricey.
13. Japan
For only slightly less than an Italian passport, the island nation of Japan charges $115 US for a passport that works in 172 countries without a visa. With the declining yen, leisure trips abroad aren’t all that feasible for the average Japanese citizen, so passport applications have gone down in recent years.
