I have considering the titular question for some time, and today The Economist did its job of answering it for me by relaying the findings of Henley and Partners, who apparently “are the world’s leading specialists in international residence and citizenship planning”, as well as being tax avoidance advisers, by their own reckoning. I’m proud to advertise their services.
A graph showing some of the more notable countries and interesting statistics is at The Economist’s website, while H&P’s full list is in PDF form at their site.
Some of the most interesting finds for me are:
- Afghanistan comes last, followed by Iraq. Is this because of the American invasions? They rank even lower than Somalia and North Korea.
- What causes some of the small discrepancies between the countries whose citizens have greatest freedom to travel? To take the most obvious example, what is that extra country that gave Denmark the sole lead with 157 countries not requiring a visa from its citizens? Which countries let in Portuguese but not Brits?
- Courtesy of the cat: If one could have two passports from any on the list, which ones should be chosen in order to maximise the number of visa-less countries one could travel to? Denmark’s might not necessarily be one of them, of course. Similarly for three passports, and so on. And so what is the minimum number of passports needed in order to visit every country in the world without a visa, assuming it’s possible? Is it possible?
- Even more interesting would be to list the countries in order of how many other countries’ citizens can enter them freely. I suspect it’d look quite different from this one, maybe even to the extent that merely listing them in the opposite order to the current one would almost suffice…
A 0-1 matrix showing which countries let in which other countries’ citizens will answer most of the questions. Come on, Economist, I’m waiting…
someone said
Hi,
Some interesting (at least,I hope so) information:
Danes can travel to Vietnam and Niger, for which most other nationals need visas.
The Swiss are the only Europeans who can travel visa-free to Suriname
Many African countries require visas from all nationals. India allows only citizens of Nepal, Bhutan, and Maldives to enter without a visa
Some countries practice “visa reciprocity,” e.g. US citizens need a visa for Brazil, because Brazilian citizens need a visa for the USA.
If you combine the Danish passport (157 countries, worldwide passport with highest travel freedom) and the US passport (155 countries, non-European passport with highest travel freedom), you can travel visa-free to 159 countries (US citizens can travel visa-free to Mongolia and –as only foreign nationals–to Equatorial Guinea).
But AFAIK Demark usually allows no dual citizenship, so you must be born in USA to Danish parents to get both passports
According to the Index, Japanese can travel visa-free to 154 countries, including Vietnam and China, but Wikipedia says they need a visa for Niger now. Japan does not allow dual citizenship either. Canadians can also travel to 154 countries.
The website http://projectvisa.com informs you who needs a visa for what countries.
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joshua abruku said
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JOHNSON,NIGERIAN said
WHICH IS VISA FREE TO GUINEA REPUBLIC