The United States stands 28th globally in the passport index compiled by Passport Reports, a platform publishing passport assessments for 199 countries in 34 languages. The U.S. passport ranking, based on figures updated October 18, 2026, assigns the document a mobility score of 153 and an international access rate of 77.3% across 198 rated destinations.
American passport holders can enter 111 destinations visa-free; another 32 allow a visa on arrival or a comparable facilitated-entry procedure, while 10 require an electronic travel authorization. Together, these categories account for the mobility score of 153. The remaining 45 destinations fall into Passport Reports’ visa-required category, which can also include places offering electronic visa applications.
North American and international comparisons
Within North America, the United States places 2nd of 23 passports, behind Canada, which ranks 23rd globally. That continental position is distinct from the U.S. passport’s 28th-place worldwide standing.
Across major international groupings, the United States ranks 7th of 7 in the G7 and 8th of 19 in the G20. The comparative places are 27th of 32 NATO members, 38th of 159 World Trade Organization members, 30th of 38 OECD members, 33rd of 57 OSCE participating states and 8th of 21 APEC economies. These are passport comparisons within each group; membership does not itself establish a shared visa regime.
In the site’s language and currency categories, the U.S. passport is 8th of 60 passports from countries where English is listed as an official language, and 1st of 10 among countries using the U.S. dollar. The separate population table places the United States 3rd by estimated population (349,035,494 in 2026); this is a demographic ranking, not a mobility measure.
Travel permissions and the direction of access
Passport Reports lists Canada as visa-free for U.S. passport holders, while the United Kingdom and Australia require an electronic travel authorization. China appears among destinations classified as requiring a visa. In the visa-on-arrival group, Egypt is listed with a 30-day stay and an electronic visa option; individual conditions remain destination-specific.
In destination-filtered mobility lists, the U.S. passport places 12th of 65 among passports eligible for simplified access to the Schengen Area, 38th of 54 for Canada and 39th of 84 for the United Kingdom. These lists rank the eligible passports by their wider mobility standing and do not create separate national visa rights.
Entry policy for foreign visitors
Two separate measures look in the opposite direction: the United States ranks 115th of 199 in Passport Reports’ Most Welcoming Countries table and 31st of 199 in its Most Restrictive Countries table, which assess entry requirements for foreign passport holders arriving in the United States. Neither measure describes where Americans can travel, and the two directions do not necessarily imply identical visa treatment.
Schengen access and a 29-country hypothetical scenario
The United States is not a member of the Schengen Area, but the Passport Reports destination list shows visa-free access for American passport holders to all 29 Schengen member countries. The European Commission counts 29 full members, including Bulgaria and Romania following their full accession in January 2025; Cyprus and Ireland are not part of that 29-country group. U.S. State Department guidance allows short tourism or business visits of up to 90 days in any 180-day period, subject to entry requirements.
If the existing visa-free access to those 29 Schengen destinations were hypothetically removed, with all other destination statuses and the other 198 passports unchanged, the U.S. mobility score would decrease from 153 to 124. Visa-free access would fall from 111 to 82 destinations, while electronic travel authorization access would remain at 10 and visa-on-arrival or related facilitated entry at 32. Destinations in the visa-required category would increase from 45 to 74.
Applying the same published ordering and tie-break rules yields a hypothetical global ranking of 54th, compared with the present 28th. At a score of 124, Grenada (95 visa-free destinations) and Paraguay (86) would remain ahead of the U.S. figure of 82 on the visa-free tie-break; Panama’s mobility score is 122. The calculation describes a conditional comparison, not an announced or implemented change in Schengen visa policy.
How the rankings are calculated
Passport indexes can produce different orders because they classify entry permissions, award mobility points and resolve equal scores in different ways. Passport Reports applies the same predefined, measurable criteria to each passport and makes its ranking priorities explicit. Its mobility score totals destinations available without a visa, with a visa on arrival or a comparable facilitated-entry arrangement, and with an electronic travel authorization. Passports are ordered first by mobility score; ties are resolved by the number of visa-free destinations, then by electronic travel authorization destinations, and finally by visa-on-arrival or facilitated-entry destinations. Where all four measures coincide, passports share the same rank. Applying those consistent rules across the entire comparison makes the results transparent and reproducible.
Source: Passport Reports
