According to the latest passport index report by London-based immigration consultancy Henley & Partners, Canada’s passport ranking has been shared with Australia, Greece, the Czech Republic and Malta. Canada ranked eighth on the list in 2021, moving up from ninth place in 2020. Its peak was reached in 2014 when the Canadian passport ranked second on the list. As of 2022, Canadian passport holders can visit 185 countries visa-free. Japan’s passport was ranked the most valuable for travelers in 2022, with holders accessing 193 countries visa-free, followed by Singapore and South Korea tied for second, whose passport holders have access to 192 Countries. Other higher-ranking countries included mainly members of the European Union, with Germany and Spain in third place, while Finland, Italy and Luxembourg tied for fourth. Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden tied for fifth place. The UK and the US both fell one place to sixth and seventh respectively, while Afghanistan remained at the bottom of the list, with its citizens only able to travel to 27 countries visa-free. However, the freedom a passport can offer does not necessarily indicate travel habits, Henley & Partners said in a statement. While Asian countries rank high on the passport strength scale, they are less likely to use it due to their region’s stricter approach to COVID-19, the company says, with their international travel demand still less than a quarter of levels before COVID-19. However, travel mobility markets in North America and Europe have recovered to about 60% of their previous levels, according to Henley & Partners. Canada’s national airports have faced chronic problems for months, including long lines, canceled flights and lost luggage, prompting calls for immediate solutions. Staffing shortages have forced Air Canada to cancel thousands of flights, with the airline announcing it will reduce flights in July and August. “The shock of the pandemic was unlike anything we’ve seen in our lifetimes, and recovering and restoring our travel freedoms and our innate instinct to move and migrate will take time,” said Dr. Christian H. Kaelin, Chairman of Henley & Partners; in a release. While several factors influence a country’s visa-free access rating, the consultancy said there is a strong correlation between the strength of a nation’s passports and its Global Peace Index score. Canada ranked 12th in the 2022 World Peace Index, just below Switzerland and Japan, with a score of 1.39 out of five. The lower the score, the more peaceful the country. “Now more than ever, it’s a mistake to think of a passport as just a travel document that lets you get from A to B,” said Stephen Klimczuk-Massion, a fellow at Oxford University’s Saïd Business School. “The relative strength or weakness of a particular national passport directly affects the passport holder’s quality of life and can even be a matter of life and death in some cases.”
