New Zealand passport named world's 6th 'most powerful'

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) passport has been named the world's most powerful in a newly released list of rankings, with New Zealand coming in at sixth-equal.

Passport Index ranks nations on the total number of countries their passport entitles them visa-free travel to.

It's a rival ranking to the Henley Passport Index, which put Japan in the top spot and Aotearoa in eighth-equal last month.

The Global Passport Power Rank 2018 lists the UAE as having visa-free access to 113 countries, visa on arrival access to a further 54 and access with a visa to another 31, for a total 'visa-free score' of 167.

New Zealand's total is listed as 162, broken down as 112 visa-free, 50 visa on arrival and 36 visa required.

Afghanistan has the bottom spot on the list, with a score of 29, while Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Pakistan and Somalia each also received scores under 40.

The Passport Index top ten most powerful for 2018 are as follows:

  1. United Arab Emirates
  2. Singapore, Germany
  3. Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Luxembourg, France, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Norway, South Korea, United States of America
  4. Belgium, Austria, Japan, Greece, Portugal, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada
  5. Czech Republic, Hungary
  6. Malta, Iceland, New Zealand
  7. Malaysia, Slovenia, Poland, Lithuania, Slovakia, Latvia, Australia
  8. Estonia
  9. Romania, Bulgaria
  10. Cyprus, Liechtenstein

The Passport Index is backed by Canadian financial advisory firm Arton Capital, while the Henley Index is powered by the International Air Transport Association.

Newshub.