As the world tunes in to The PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympic Games, South Korea has found another stage to shine on, taking top spot on The Passport Index for the first time, a position it shares with Singapore at a score of 162.
Historically, European countries have dominated the charts, but this changed when Singapore rose to the top in late 2017. By December 2017, Germany caught up but it wasn’t for long.
Recent changes were mainly driven by Uzbekistan granting visa-free access to South Korea and Singapore, as well as recent adjustments to visa policies in Somalia. South Korean passport holders have access to many European, North American and Asian countries, including the US, Canada, Russia and others.
Trailing close behind in second place is Japan, which moved up the ranks with its score of 161. Although tied with Germany, Japan has fewer visa-free waivers than Germany, which puts it fourth in the Individual Passport Power Ranking. The Passport Index gives equal scores to both visa-free and visa on arrival conditions.
The World Openness Score as measured by The Passport Index has passed the 19,000 mark for the first time. This represents an increase of over 1,000 points since the measure was introduced in 2014 to monitor how frictionless global travel is.
