Passport power

Tidy Tuesday Week 36

I learned about the Henley Passport Index via this CNN article about the decline of the US passport. I was curious about how the relative ranking of the US passport over time compared to the passport that is currently the most powerful, that is the Singapore passport.

It is interesting that over the last ~ 20 years the US passport has gone from Number 1 in the rankings to Number 10, while at the same time the Singapore passport has gone from Number 11 to Number 1.

Even more interesting is that this shift in rankings is caused by relatively small differences in the number of countries that travellers possessing each passport can visit without obtaining a visa in advance. When plotted in terms of visa-free country access, Singapore has passed the United States in access since 2017, but only by 5-10 countries.

load packages / data

library(tidytuesdayR)
library(tidyverse)
library(janitor)
library(ggeasy)
library(gt)
library(ggtext)

year <- 2025
week <- 36

tt <- tidytuesdayR::tt_load(year, week)

country <- tt[[1]]

rank <- tt[[2]]

wrangle

countries <- c("United States", "Singapore")

us_sing <- rank %>%
  filter(country %in% countries) %>%
  arrange(country, year) %>%
  filter(visa_free_count > 0)

rank2025 <- rank %>%
  filter(year == 2025) %>%
  filter(rank <= 10)

pp25 <- as.vector(rank2025$country)

top10 <- rank %>%
  filter(country %in% pp25) %>%
  filter(visa_free_count > 0)

plot

by rank

pal <- c("Singapore" = "indianred3","United States" = "royalblue3")

p1 <-  us_sing %>%
  ggplot(aes(x = year, y = rank, colour = country)) +
  geom_point(size = 3) +
  geom_line(linewidth = 1) +
  scale_colour_manual(values = pal) +
 scale_y_reverse(limits = c(11, 1), breaks = c(1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11)) +
  scale_x_continuous(limits = c(2005, 2025)) +
  theme_bw() +
  easy_remove_legend() +
  easy_text_size(12) +
  labs(x = "Year", y = "Passport Rank", title = "Passport Power by rank", 
subtitle = "The Henley Passport Index reports the number of countries in which a traveller in possession of that passport can enter without obtaining a visa in advance and passports are commonly ranked on this metric. In these rankings, the relative power of the **<span style='color:royalblue3'>United States</span>** passport has declined, such that in 2025 it is at risk of falling out of the Top 10. In contrast, the **<span style='color:indianred3'>Singapore</span>** passport, which is currently ranked Number 1, has seen consistent gains in the rankings.") + 
  theme(text = element_text(family = "Lato"), 
      plot.subtitle = element_textbox_simple(width = unit(1, "npc"), 
                                             halign = 0,
                              margin = margin(t = 10, r = 0, b = 15, l = 0)))

by visa free countries

p2 <-  us_sing %>%
    ggplot(aes(x = year, y = visa_free_count, colour = country)) +
  geom_point(size = 3) +
  geom_line(linewidth = 1) +
    scale_colour_manual(values = pal) +
 scale_y_continuous(limits = c(120, 200)) +
  scale_x_continuous(limits = c(2005, 2025)) +
  theme_bw() +
  easy_text_size(12) +
  labs(x = "Year", y = "Visa free count", title = "Passport Power by visa free countries", 
       subtitle = "The Henley Passport Index reports the number of countries in which a traveller in possession of that passport can enter without obtaining a visa in advance. The number of visa free countries available to travellers on a **<span style='color:indianred3'>Singapore</span>** passport has exceeded those available to travellers on a **<span style='color:royalblue3'>United States</span>** passport since 2017.") + 
  easy_remove_legend() +
  theme(text = element_text(family = "Lato"), 
      plot.subtitle = element_textbox_simple(width = unit(1, "npc"), 
                                             halign = 0,
                              margin = margin(t = 5, r = 0, b = 15, l = 0)))