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If you have citizenship in Sweden, you have a great deal of traveling power - Swedes can fly to 187 countries without a visa. This makes international travel cheaper and easier than it is for citizens of many other countries. Citizens of Afghanistan can fly to just 30 countries without a visa.
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These stark differences are revealed in the Passport Index, which ranks countries based on the number of nations where residents can enter without a visa or obtain a visa on arrival. The citizenship planning firm Henley & Partners compiled government data from 200 nations, territories, and microstates to create the 2018 ranking.
Here are the 21 countries with the highest-ranking passports. Many of these nations are tied, which is why we start at #5.
Japan topped this year's Passport Index, surpassing Singapore.
The two countries were tied at 180 countries until March 2018, when Benin relaxed its visa requirements for Japan. Earlier in the year, Henley also added eight territories and microstates for consideration in the ranking: Greenland, the Faroe Islands, Monaco, Andorra, Liechtenstein, Palestine, Vatican City, and San Marino, all of which Japan passport-holders can access without a visa.
