A study by Henley & Partners has ranked Australia as having the 8th most powerful passport in the world. Holding an Australian passport will allow you to enter 169 countries without having to obtain a visa at all. Germany came out on top of the list, allowing citizens visa-free access to 177 countries, followed by Sweden with 176.
“Generally, visa requirements reflect strongly on each country’s relationships with others, and will take into account diplomatic relationships between the countries, reciprocal visa arrangements, security risks, and the risks of visa and immigration rules violations,” Henley & Partners explains.
Interestingly, countries with strong economic investment migration schemes rated strongly in the top 30.
However, on the opposite end of the scale, lies the Afghanistan passport, which allows its citizens to visit just 25 countries without a visa. Other countries at the bottom of the list include Libya (36), Syria (32), Somalia (32), Iraq (30) and Pakistan (29).