The greatest passports of the decade: UAE is number one
30 December, 2019
It's been a good decade for the UAE passport.
According to the Global Passport Index, a platform that measures the global mobility score of nations, the Emirati passport has packed the most powerful punch over the last ten years.
It tops both the overall Global Passport Power Rank for 2019, and is also the most improved passport of the decade. The rankings consider the passports of 199 destinations around the world. It scored the UAE as the world's strongest passport of the decade, after the UAE added a total of 111 visa waivers for citizens in the last ten years.
In the ranking, each passport is scored for mobility, or the freedom that citizens have to visit other destinations around the world.
The UAE's mobility score has increased by 161 per cent from 2010 to 2019, with Emiratis now able to enjoy visa-free or visa on arrival entry across 90 per cent of the world.
2019 saw the UAE capitalise on its decade of growth, and the country was awarded 179 mobility points, the highest-ever score in the global ranking system.
In the last year alone, an additional 12 countries were added to the list of destinations that Emiratis can visit via visa-waiver or visa on arrival policies.
The rise of the underdogs: the passports that have risen in the ranks
The decade has also seen many smaller countries rise higher in the global rankings. In particular, island nations have shot up in terms of mobility.
Vanuatu in the South Pacific Ocean ranked in tenth place for growth over the last decade after gaining 53 visa waivers from 2010 to 2019. Timor Leste — one of the world's least visited countries — ranks in ninth position having secured 55 visa waivers in the last ten years. Micronesia, Palau and the Marshall Islands also ranked in the top ten.
Elsewhere, Moldova and Georgia and Bosnia and Herzegovina ranked in sixth and fifth place, repetitively. Albania took fourth place with an additional 65 visa-free or visa-on arrival destinations added for passport holders over the decade.
Taking the third spot was Ukraine, with 141 points for mobility. Taiwan saw a 143 per cent increase in ranking score to come in second place.
The 10 most powerful passports of the decade, aka the most improved
- UAE
- Taiwan
- Ukraine
- Albania
- Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Moldova and Georgia
- Palau and the Marshall Islands (joint)
- Micronesia
- Timor Leste
- Vanuata
Source: www.thenational.ae
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