London, July 18 (CNA) Taiwan passport holders have visa-free access to 144 countries and territories around the world, ranking it 31st in the latest Henley Passport Index published Tuesday.
Taiwan's passport climbed four places from 35th in the previous survey issued by the London-based consulting firm Henley & Partners in January 2023, putting it in a tie with Panama and Macau in 31st place.
Singapore topped the rankings, with its passport giving holders visa-free access to 192 nations in the world, according to the index.
Germany shared second place with Italy and Spain with access to 190 destinations, while Japan, after ranking first for five years, fell two places to third, allowing its passport holders access to 189 countries without a visa.
The rankings are slightly deceptive in that place rankings do not account for ties. Though Taiwan's passport ranked 31st, a total of 65 countries had passports with more visa-free access.
In the previous survey, though Taiwan ranked 35th, it trailed 64 other countries, and its passport had visa-free access to 145 destinations.
The Henley Passport Index compares the visa-free access of 199 different passports to 227 travel destinations. Its first index was issued in 2006.
Austria, Finland, France, Luxembourg, South Korea, and Sweden shared third place with Japan, while Denmark, Ireland, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom came in fourth with 188 destinations.
Fifth on the index were Belgium, Czech Republic, Malta, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, and Switzerland.
Meanwhile, China ranked 63rd (with a total of 112 countries ahead of it) with visa-free access to 80 countries.
Afghanistan came at the bottom on the index with only 27 destinations offering visa-free travel to its passport holders.
The Henley Passport Index is based on exclusive and official data from the International Air Transport Association.
