Vita Gazette – The Italian passport is among the most “powerful” in the world, along with those of France, Germany, Japan, Singapore, and Spain. The document opens the doors to 194 countries.

The ranking is based on the Henley Passport Index, which uses data from the International Air Transport Authority (IATA). For the first time, the Italian passport is at the top of the Henley Passport Index ranking, together with France, Germany, Japan, Singapore and Spain.

In second place are the passports of Finland and Sweden, together with that of South Korea: they allow access to 193 countries. Completing the podium – in third place with 192 countries – are Austria, Denmark, Ireland and the Netherlands. Belgium, Luxembourg, Norway, Portugal and the United Kingdom also performed well, occupying fourth position, while Greece, Malta and Switzerland were fifth.

In general, the inequalities between the north and south of the world also appear very evident from the point of view of travel documents. Henley & Partners has also published an average of the total number of nations to which it is possible to access for each category of countries: those of the G7 guarantee open borders in 85 per cent of cases, those of the European Union in 84 per cent, and those of the G20 is still relatively high, with 69 per cent.

The level is already decreasing for the nations that belong to Mercosur, with 58 percent, and even more for the BRICS (43 percent) and the ASEAN (40 percent). The African Union is far behind, and its member countries are at most 28 percent.