So what’s the most valuable passport in the world? You know, for the next time you and
your international friends are drunkenly arguing over who’s country is better, and need some boring
facts to put them to sleep so you can actually win the argument. Well don’t worry, we have your back.
There are a lot of ways you can judge what passport is the best.
How big they are, how many pages they have, how blue they are. But we’ll be looking at how many
other places you can get into without needing a visa, or any prior approval.
Why would countries let someone just jump on a plane and enter their country? Usually just to
promote economic cooperation and tourism. If the cast of Jersey Shore had to figure out how
to apply for international visas to Mexico, they’d never be able to spend their american
dollars on Cancun beaches talking about who gave who chlamydia. And Mexico can’t have that.
Now there are some situations where you can travel across any international border
without a passport. For example, this is a United Nations Laissez Passer which is not technically a
passport. It is a travel document issued by the UN to UN staff. This works mostly like a
normal passport and even has some extra special features like visa-free access to more countries
than passports and certain levels of diplomatic privileges with the added disadvantage that
apparently immigration officers often don’t know what these are and get confused. Of course that’s
because these are rather rare which is also why, for the purposes of this video, we’re not going to
close up shop one minute in and end by saying the most valuable passport is one of these bad boys.
And in the interstate of not having a one minute video. What’s the world’s least valuable passport
Well, that’s easy, it belongs to this little country most people probably haven’t heard of
called Uf-gahns-TAN. Oh wait, that’s Afghanistan, and since half my viewers are american,
they should be plenty familiar with it. It’s hard to overstate just how useless Afghanistan
passports are, but just for comparison, only 26 countries allow visa free access to one
of these passports, and that’s about 33% fewer destinations than even North Korea
and even less than Palestine, who’s status as a country is…..well, let’s just not get into that….
Some countries get a bit of an advantage like most of Europe. Thanks to the Schengen zone,
anyone member of these 26 countries can freely travel to any other without a visa. And
some countries have a bit of a disadvantage. 39 countries allow visa free access to North Korean
passport holders, not that there are too many of them since most people aren’t allowed to leave
the country, but 39 countries nonetheless give them access no questions asked like,
tanzania, togo, and guana. Three countries you know so little about,
that 's not any of them, and this one’s not even land, that’s lake victoria.
Have an Isralie passport and Malaysia won’t let you in under any circumstances,
and if you have an isralit stamp in your American passport, Kuwait won’t let you in.
And some passports are just a little weird.
The Vatican only has about 800 citizens and 450 passports,
but those are comparably good passports, getting you wisa free into 77 countries.
Based on Youtube Analytics about half my viewers are from the United States, and sorry to say it’s
not you guys. An American passport gives you visa free access to 187 countries out of a
possible 227. Wondering why we’re counting out of 227 when the United Nations only has 193.
Well the international air transport association is the body that tracks all this information,
and they count places like Taiwan, that to any reasonable person is a sovereign country,
thanks to China, it’s not invited to the UN club.
But if you want a little extra, you could get another passport in another country. 21 countries
around the world let you become a citizen or permanent resident by donation or investing
into the country without ever setting foot in the country. These come with widely different
price tags. A $100,000 donation, otherwise called a legal bribe, will get you citizenship in Saint
Lucia and access to 157 countries. Or they can be as expensive as the $2.4 million real
estate investment required for a Cayman Island passport giving you access to 167 destinations.
If you’re an american citizen and have always dreamed about traveling to some of your countries'
frenemies without the friend part. Well, buy a $100,000 passport to Antigua and Barbados,
and just like that you have a second passport and can fly into Cuba, Iran, and Russia.
And some passports can quickly become more or less valuable. In the last 30 years,
the number of countries accepting visa free travel to Taiwanese and United Arabe Emirates passport
holders has nearly tripled. Meanwhile, Bolivia, thanks to worsening geopolitical conditions,
37 countries have stopped accepting Bolivian passports just in the last decade.
So what country has the most valuable passport.
Just barely beating out South Korea and Germany and Singapore with 191
and 192 visa free destinations respectively is Japan at 193 visa free destinations. There’s only
33 countries you can’t visit with a Japanese passport, mostly in northern Africa. At 193
travel destinations that makes it 7 and a half times more valuable than a pakistani passport.
The strength of the Japanese passport mostly comes down to Japan being a big international
tourist destination (so countries), not that many countries hating Japan,
and them being on their best behavior since the whole World war 2 thing.
Kind of crazy to think about how in only 2 generations Japan went from warriors trying
to conquer the globe to….whatever this is. All this means lots of open borders.
Although you could get access to 3 more countries by buying a passport to Turkey
and Antigua and Barbados bringing your total up to 170, but not even that will get you in.
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