BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 19. The data of the global ranking of countries from Henley & Partners Passport Index has been published, Trend reports.
According to the rating, Azerbaijan ranked 72th in the Henley & Partners Passport Index meaning that citizens of Azerbaijan can visit 69 countries visa-free.
Japan stopped leading the ranking of the most powerful passport in the world and ended up in third place for the first time in five years. Singapore led the ranking: its citizens can visit 192 countries (out of 227) visa-free or obtain a visa on arrival. Germany, Italy, and Spain moved up to the second place, with access to 190 countries without a visa. The third place was shared by six countries: Austria, Luxembourg, Finland, France, Sweden, South Korea and Japan (189 visa-free countries).
The last countries in the ranking are Syria (30 visa-free countries), Iraq (29 visa-free countries) and Afghanistan (27 visa-free countries).
Furthermore, as appears from the data of the Passport Index, it is possible to follow the changes in the rating of passports of different countries over 14 years.
In general, all post-Soviet countries have shown significant progress over the past decade. Therefore, the number of visa-free countries in Russia increased from 83 to 115, in Ukraine from 64 to 146, in Georgia from 56 to 117, in Kazakhstan from 54 to 77, in the Republic of Belarus from 56 to 79, in Azerbaijan from 51 to 69, and in Uzbekistan from 47 to 59.