Canadian passport still among 10 most powerful in latest ranking
Canada remains among the top 10 countries with the most powerful passport, according to the latest global ranking.
The 20th anniversary edition of the Henley Passport Index reveals that travellers from Canada can rest assured that their passport remains a valuable document. Henley & Partners is a U.K.-based investment immigration consultancy company that has been ranking passports since 2006. And a lot has changed since.
Now, the average passport can access 108 global destinations — up from just 58 countries twenty years ago — proving “how dramatically global mobility has expanded.”
Based on information from the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the ranking covers data from 199 different passports and 227 travel destinations. The report also shows how global mobility continues to change, even as the world faces the highest number of state-based conflicts since the Second World War, according to the Global Peace Index.
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So, how does Canada rank compared to other countries?
For the third year in a row, Canada is in seventh place, with its passport giving citizens visa-free access to 183 destinations. Considering Canada ranked number six in 2006, it’s not a bad place to be two decades later. The highest ranking the Canadian passport ever achieved was in 2014 when it was the second most powerful passport in the world.
Currently, the number one most powerful passport in the world is the Singaporean passport, followed by Japan, South Korea, and the United Arab Emirates, which all ranked second.
Canada shares the seventh spot with several countries, such as Australia, Czechia, Latvia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Slovakia, and Slovenia. It’s also a couple of spots ahead of the U.S., which currently ranks at number 10.
But whether Canada will be able to retain its seventh spot remains to be seen.
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Starting Feb. 17, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in China announced that passport holders from Canada and the U.K. can travel to China visa-free for up to 30 days “for business, tourism, family/friends visit, exchange and transit purposes.” However, the policy only lasts until Dec. 31, 2026.
Canadians require a visa to travel to Afghanistan, Algeria, Bahrain, Benin, Bhutan, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Republic of the Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Cuba, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, India, Iran, Iraq, Liberia, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Myanmar, Nauru, Niger, Nigeria, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, Somalia, South Sudan, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Syria, Togo, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Venezuela, Vietnam, and Yemen.
Read the full report online.