MANAMA: The Kingdom of Bahrain’s passport has been ranked 57th in the latest Passport Power Index published on Wednesday.
Passport Index rankings calculated on the basis of diversity, beauty and power of the world’s passports.
Arton Capital, the global financial advisory firm specializing in investor programs for residency and citizenship, launched the ‘Passport Index’, the world’s first online interactive tool, which collects displays and ranks the passports of the world.
“Working in an industry that is so sensitive to origin and nationality, we wanted to display the diversity, the beauty and the power of world’s passports,” Armand Arton, president and CEO of Arton Capital, said.
The ranking is based on points accumulated for each country that the passport holder can travel visa-free. The country list is based on the 193 UN member countries and 6 territories for a total of 199. The territories annexed to other countries are excluded. For the visa-free count, IATA’s Timaticweb platform and other sources are consulted.
In the GCC, the UAE is ranked in 47th place, with access to 72 countries visa free, Qatar shortly follows in 52nd place, whilst Bahrain and Saudi Arabia are both ranked at 57th in the list by passport power. The USA and UK top are ranked 1st, in tie at second place are ranked France, Germany and South Korea. At the bottom of the list are the passports of Solomon Islands, Myanmar (Burma), South Sudan, Sao Tome and Principe.
The Passport Index is just one of the numerous interactive tools made available by Arton. This particular project is open for visitors to contribute with information about new passport covers, and recommendations about the methodology.