NZ shares crown of world’s most powerful passport

WELLINGTON: Kiwis may not be travelling very far these days, but that hasn't stopped the passport from rising back to the top of the Passport Index ranking. The little black book joins Germany at the summit, foreign media reported.

The Passport Index is one of several indices which measure the amount of visa-free world travel. It looks at the passports of 193 United Nations member countries and six territories.

Both NZ and Germany have visa-free access or visa on arrival to 136 countries. Following New Zealand and Germany are five countries with the same score of 135 – Finland, Australia, Spain, Switzerland and Japan.

At the bottom is Afghanistan with a score of 30, with Iraq, Syria and Somalia just above it. Another regular index from Henley & Partners in April had the New Zealand passport in joint seventh (or joint 16th depending on how you want to view the table),

Japan topped that poll, with Singapore second, and Germany and South Korea sharing third place. The Henley Passport Index uses data from the International Air Transport Association for its measurements, covering 199 passports and 227 travel destinations.