Study reveals 10 most powerful passports in the world

The Global Passport Index by Global Citizen Solutions has revealed the most powerful passports in the world. Photo / Pexels

Flash your black and silver New Zealand passport almost anywhere around the world and you'll get a positive response.

But if it's power you're after, you may want to get your hands on a passport from the land of the free.

After analysing how many countries it allows access to, investment opportunities and quality of life indicators, a study released on Monday found American passports to be the most powerful.

Created by Immigration investment consultancy firm Global Citizen Solutions, the Global Passport Index used a quantitative scoring system to rank passports across different criteria and categories.

With a total score of 96.4, the US was the world's strongest passport. It ranked fourth in the investment index, 10th in the enhanced mobility index but 23rd in the quality-of-life index.

Others who made the top ten were; Germany, Canada, The Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Finland, Norway and New Zealand.

The best passports for investment were Singapore, Hong Kong and Macao. New Zealand ranked 25th.

Singapore, Spain and Finland offered the best mobility, while New Zealand came in at 29th.

Unsurprisingly, Sweden, Finland and Denmark came out top for quality-of-life, closely followed by New Zealand in 7th.

Global Citizen Solutions used several data sets from different institutions and organisations such as The World Bank, the World Economic Forum and The Sustainable Development Report.

Global Citizen Solutions are by no means the only organisation to rank passports according to certain factors.

In October, the Henley Passport Power Rankings listed Singapore and Japan as the world's most powerful passports based on data from the International Air Transport Association. In this instance, power was defined by the number of visa-free travel arrangements with other countries. New Zealand came in 6th place.

In 2020, New Zealand was classed as the world's most desirable passport alongside Japan in a study conducted by Passport Index.