Online Database Breaks Down the Power of the World’s Passports

The power of your passport can make all the difference when planning a trip abroad. Some countries' passports grant travelers access to most nations on Earth, while others will get their citizens into only a small fraction of them. To compare the privileges that come with your passport compared to those of other places around the globe, visit Passport Index.

As The Next Web reports, Passport Index is an online encyclopedia of passports from more than 190 nations. The database invites visitors to investigate the power of their own passport as well as those from other parts of the world. Each passport is assigned a global rank based on its total Visa-Free Score (a.k.a. the freedom to travel to a country without a visa or by receiving a visa upon arrival). Germany and Sweden are both tied for first place with a Visa-Free Score of 158, and the U.S. ties for fourth with a score of 155. While fourth place is certainly nothing to gripe about, it is a few steps down from the first place ranking Americans enjoyed in 2014 and 2015.

After checking the ranking for your home country, the tool will also let you compare the passports of up to four nations at once. Enter the names of the countries you wish to see side-by-side then scroll through the list below to see which passports grant access to which places. When comparing Germany and the U.S., for example, you’ll see that U.S. citizens traveling to Venezuela, Vietnam, and Brazil need to acquire visas, but German passport-holders do not.

Passport Index

Those are just a few of the features travelers can use to brush up on their passport knowledge. The tool is good for more than just trip-planning: If you’re a design nerd, Passport Index also offers gorgeous maps and color breakdowns worth exploring.

[h/t The Next Web]

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