Hong Kong has moved up one notch from last year to 18th place in a global ranking of passports, with those holding the special administrative region's passports now having visa-free entry to 170 out of 227 travel destinations around the world.

Hong Kong was in 13th position in 2006, when the Henley Passport Index, which is based on exclusive data from the International Air Transport Association, was first launched.

The Chinese passport was ranked 59th, with access to 85 destinations visa-free. Since 2014, China has jumped up 24 places and is among the top 10 countries that have climbed the highest in the ranking over the past decade, according to the July 2024 edition of the Henley Global Mobility Report, which was released on Tuesday.

Singapore has trumped five other countries to become the only one in the top spot with visa-free entry to 195 destinations.

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France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and Spain dropped to joint second place, each with visa-free access to 192 destinations.

An unprecedented seven-nation cohort, each with access to 191 destinations without a prior visa, now sit in third place on the ranking. The countries are Austria, Finland, Ireland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, South Korea, and Sweden.

Despite its visa-free destination score falling to 190, the United Kingdom hangs onto fourth place along with Belgium, Denmark, New Zealand, Norway, and Switzerland.

The United States, on the other hand, continues its now decade-long slide down the index, dropping down to eighth spot, with access to just 186 destinations visa-free.

Former passport powerhouses, the UK and the US jointly held 1st place on the index 10 years ago in 2014.

The UAE made it into the top 10 for the first time, having added an impressive 152 destinations since 2006 to achieve its current visa-free score of 185, and rising a remarkable 53 places in the ranking from 62nd to 9th position in the process.

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Meanwhile, Afghanistan remains firmly entrenched as the world’s weakest passport, losing access to yet another destination over the past six months, leaving its citizens with access to only 26 countries visa-free – the lowest score ever recorded in history of the 19-year-old index.

Commenting on the latest index, Dr Christian H Kaelin, chairman of Henly and Partners and inventor of the passport index concept, said the general trend over the past two decades has been towards greater travel freedom, with the global average number of destinations travelers are able to access visa-free nearly doubling from 58 in 2006 to 111 in 2024.

“However, the global mobility gap between those at the top and bottom of the index is now wider than it has ever been, with top-ranked Singapore able to access a record-breaking 169 more destinations visa-free than Afghanistan,” he said.