AN IRISH passport is the 17th most important useful passport to have in your pocket if you’re thinking of travelling the globe.
The travel website GoEuro — which helps travellers compare and combine all modes of transport to the cities and towns they wish to throughout Europe — has analysed 50 passports across the world to find out which passport is the most advantageous to have in your pocket.
GoEuro based their findings on visa free access to other countries —as well as pricing, length of validity, and the average number of hours a citizen must work to obtain their passport. All factors were weighted and scored to produce the passport ranking.
Sweden emerged as number one in what GoEuro are calling the Ultimate Passport Ranking. Holding a Swedish passport allows you to enter 174 countries without a visa.
An Irish passport, at no 17, allows you to enter 171 countries without a visa. Afghanistan brings up the rear, just behind Iraq and Liberia. Bearers of an Afghan passport can only enter 28 countries without a visa.
The top twenty in the Ultimate Passport Ranking
(Ranking / Country /number of visa free countries / price / average hours worked to get passport)
1. Sweden / 74 / £28 / 1
2. Finalnd / 174 /£37 / 5
3. Germany / 174 / £45 / 7
4. UK / 174 / £73 / 11
5. USA / 174 / £89 / 19
6. Denmark / 173 / £65 /3
7 Canada / 173 / £88 / 15
8. Spain / 172 / 320 / 5
9. Belgium / 172 / £50 / 8
10. Netherlands / 172 / £52 / 8
11. France / 12 £66 / 9
12. Portugal / 172 / £50 / 19
13. Japan / 172 / £76 / 19
14. Italy / 172 / £89 /23
15. Norway / 171 / £76 / 3
16. Austria / 171 / £58 / 5
17. Ireland / 171 / £62 /9
18. Singapore / 170 / £40 / 8
19. Switzerland / 170 / £112 / 9
20. New Zealand / 170 / £76 / 10
6 Passport facts
1. The Irish passport is the only one to depict a musical instrument
2. The Irish passport is 91 years old this year; before 1924 Irish people were forced to travel on a British passport.
3. The British passport is 601 years old. The earliest surviving ‘passport’ in Britain appeared during the reign of Henry V, in an Act of Parliament dated 1414.
4. You can legally hold both a British and an Irish passport.
5. Austria allows its citizens to hold a second Austrian passport to circumvent certain travel restrictions.
6. The Finnish passport is a ‘flip book’ which features a walking moose.
