Luxembourg tied for fourth place with Finland, Italy and Spain. Japan topped the ranking, with visa-free travel to 193 countries, followed by Singapore (192), and Germany and South Korea, both in third place (191).

The UK and the US--who jointly ranked first in 2014--came in 7th place with a score of 187 countries passport holders can visit visa-free or with visa-on-arrival arrangements.

Syria (29), Iraq (28) and Afghanistan (26) came last in the list of 110 countries, which is based on data from the International Air Transport Authority.

The findings were published on 13 April by Henley & Partners in the latest edition of its quarterly Global Mobility Report 2021.

The index does not take into account covid-19 travel restrictions imposed because of the pandemic.

“Any level of international travel freedom remains theoretical for most,” Henley & Partner CEO Juerg Steffen says in the report. But with vaccination programmes being rolled out, “there is a welcome flicker of optimism after a year that saw the vast majority of people unable to travel beyond the borders of their own countries,” he says.

Global mobility mirrors access to vaccines, according to the report. “Temporary restrictions aside, the commencement of mass vaccination programs in certain wealthy and advanced economies such as the EU, the UAE, the UK, and the US, means that global mobility will soon be a possibility again for some, as will economic recovery for their countries,” says Steffen.

“However, for citizens of developing and emerging economies, where vaccine rollouts are much slower, and where passports tend to offer far less travel freedom in general — the future looks decidedly less rosy.”