Pakistani passport's ranking slips to 101st, still 4th-worst in the world

Pakistan’s passport ranking has slipped by one position to the 101st spot globally and remains the fourth worst in the world, according to the Henley Passport Index, it emerged on Tuesday.

The Henley Passport Index compares 199 different passports across 227 different travel destinations, and calculates the score based on the number of destinations that can be accessed without a prior visa, or with a visa on arrival.

With visa-free access declining from 30 countries in May to 29 countries in July, the Pakistani passport’s rank slipped by one rank to 101st.

The travel document has been declared the world’s fourth worst since at least January 2021 on the Henley Index, based on reports issued each year.

A graph showing Pakistan’s ranking on the Henley Passport Index over the years since 2006. — screengrab via henleyglobal.com

According to the Henley Index, Pakistani passport holders have free visa access to Barbados, Cook Islands, Dominica, Haiti, Micronesia, Montserrat, Rwanda, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, The Gambia, Trinidad and Tobago, and Vanuatu.

Visa-on-arrival (VOA) is available for Burundi, Cambodia, Comoro Islands, Djibouti, Guinea-Bissau, Madagascar, Maldives, Mozambique, Nepal, Niue, Palau Islands, Samoa, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Timor-Leste, and Tuvalu. Electronic travel authorisations can also be obtained for Kenya, Seychelles and Sri Lanka.

Cape Verde Islands, Mozambique and Qatar have stopped offering visa-free or VOA access to Pakistanis this year, although they did so in January.

The 100th ranking in May was also a descent from March, when the travel document ranked 98th with 31 countries accessible without a visa.

In February, the passport ranked 97th as Pakistani citizens had access to 32 destinations — up from 31 in January, following the reinstatement of The Gambia.

Currently, the only countries scoring lower than Pakistan are Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. Yemen now sits a spot higher on the list, with visa-free access to 30 countries.

Meanwhile, Singapore retains its position at the top of the list with a score of 192, followed by Japan, South Korea and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) continuing to tie for second place at 188 and Sweden in third at 187.

Over the past decade, Pakistan has remained close to the bottom of the rankings, although its position has improved since 2021 when it stood at 113th in the world.

The travel document placed 100th on the list in 2024 and 2023, 109th in 2022 when it allowed entry into 32 countries sans a prior visa, and 107th in 2021 with the same visa-free score. ...