Canadian passport remains one of the most powerful in the world
The Passport Index, created by Arton Capital, released a list of which passports were the most powerful in 2020, and the Canadian passport landed a spot in the top five.
When it comes to what makes a passport powerful, it’s all about global mobility, which includes the freedom to travel and move around the world. According to the Passport Index, this is based on the number of countries that grant visa-free access to each passport holder.
2020, however, saw a peculiar shift in rankings due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Passport Index says that the epidemic shuttered the World Openness Score by 65%. As a result, many passports received drastically lower scores than in previous years.
This year, Canada tied for fifth place with Malta, Czech Republic, Greece, Latvia, and Hungary.
Global Passport Power Rank 2020
Here’s how Canada has ranked in the past:
2015 – sixth place, visa-free score of 153
2016 – sixth place, visa-free score of 152
2017 – fourth place, visa-free score of 158
2018 – fourth place, visa-free score of 158
2019 – fourth place, visa-free score of 164
Unsurprisingly, European passports remained at the top of the ranking with the first-place spot was shared with Germany, Luxembourg, Spain, and South Korea.
Second place was shared with Sweden, Portugal, Austria, Italy, Switzerland, Ireland, Japan, and New Zealand.
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The United States, for comparison, dropped heavily this year, falling from third place to nineteenth.
Global Passport Power Rank 2020
The world map above shows geographically where the more powerful passports were located in 2020.
Last year, Passport Index also released the most powerful passports of the decade. The 2010s were all about increasing passport power, which led to a shift in which passports are considered the most powerful around the globe.
Passport Index
The highest mobility score of the decade went to the UAE, while the lowest went to Afghanistan.
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