The Maltese passport has been named among the world's most powerful in the 2024 Henley Passport Index.

Malta ranked joint fifth on the index, its highest-ever ranking and climbing from last year’s eighth place.

The index judges a passport’s power based on how many travel destinations its holder is able to access without the need to obtain a visa. It compares the passports of 199 countries and states to 227 travel destinations.

Malta’s passport ranks the fifth most powerful along with the passports of Greece and Switzerland. It ranks as even more powerful than the passports of Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United States.

Among the more powerful than the Maltese passport are those of France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Singapore and Spain, which ranked first together, and the passports of Finland, Austria and the UK, the second, third and fourth most powerful respectively.

The Maltese passport allows its holder visa-free or visa-on-arrival access to 190 destinations, according to the index – just four destinations short of what the most powerful passports allow.

The Maltese passport will allow you a visa-free or visa-on-arrival access to 190 destinations

The 190 destinations cover nearly all of the Americas, Central Europe, Australia, and significant parts of Eastern Europe and Africa.

Malta’s passport ranked the lowest in 2010 – in the 15th place – and managed to climb to the seventh place in 2018, 2019, 2021 and 2022.

The Maltese passport allows you a visa-free or visa-on-arrival access to 190 destinations (marked in dark blue), covering almost all of the Americas, Central Europe, Australia, and significant parts of Eastern Europe and Africa. Photo: Henley & Partners

EU countries top this year's list. At the other end of the scale, Afghanistan’s passport continues to be ranked as the least powerful of all countries, with Syria, Iraq and Pakistan just ahead.

The Afghan passport, which ranks 104th, only allows its holders visa-free access to 28 destinations.

Published annually by the Switzerland-based company Henley & Partners, the index draws data from the International Air Transport Authority (IATA) and is updated monthly.

The company is Malta’s former cash-for-passports scheme concessionaire.