The Most Powerful Passports in the World

Those who have a passport from Singapore appear to have an edge on all other world travelers in one respect. A new assessment of the world's "most powerful passports" by Henley & Partners ranks Singapore's as No. 1 because it allows visa-free entry to 195 out of 227 global destinations, reports Quartz and CNN. The US passport sits in ninth place. Highlights from the rankings:

• No. 1:Singapore (195)
• No. 2: Japan (193)
• No. 3: Finland, France, Germany, Italy, South Korea, and Spain are tied (192)

• No. 4: Austria, Denmark, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden are tied (191)
• No. 5: Belgium, New Zealand, Portugal, Switzerland, and the UK are tied (190)
• The US: An American passport allows visa-free travel to 186 global destinations, good for a ninth-place tie with Estonia. Its rank has fallen from No. 2 since 2015.
• The bottom: Afghanistan is at the very bottom of the list in 106th place, with just 26 destinations allowed. Just above it are Syria (27) and Iraq (31).