Methodology & data sources

Transparency is the core of PassRank. This page documents exactly where our passport-access data comes from, how the PassRank score is calculated, and the limitations you should keep in mind.

The PassRank score

The PassRank score of a passport is the number of destinations its holders can enter without obtaining a visa in advance. Concretely, it is the count of destinations in one of three access categories:

Visa-free — no visa needed at all (includes freedom-of-movement areas and arrival cards).
Visa on arrival — a visa is issued at the border, so no advance paperwork is required.
eTA / ETA — a quick electronic travel authorisation (e.g. ESTA, eTA, eVisitor) granted online before travel.

We deliberately exclude e-visas from the score, because an e-visa is a visa that must be applied for and approved before you travel. We also exclude "visa required" and "no admission". The maximum possible score is 198 (every other destination); the current top score is 169 (United Arab Emirates) and the lowest is 22.

Passports with the same score share a rank (dense ranking), so the rank numbers can have gaps. This is our own methodology and may differ from commercial indices such as those published by Henley & Partners or Passport Index, which use different inclusion rules.

Data source

Access data comes from the open passport-index dataset (the imorte/passport-index-data repository, the maintained continuation of the archived ilyankou/passport-index-dataset). The dataset packaging is MIT-licensed; its underlying visa-requirement data is compiled from publicly available information published on passportindex.org. We fetched the dataset and committed a dated snapshot — captured 17 February 2026 — so every page reflects the same point in time.

Source	Refresh cadence	License
Passport Index dataset (imorte/passport-index-data)	monthly	MIT (packaging); data from passportindex.org
Passport Index dataset (ilyankou, historical)	none	MIT
Passport Index (passportindex.org)	monthly	Publicly available information

How each value maps to a category

The raw dataset uses values such as a number of days, visa free, visa on arrival, eta, e-visa, visa required and no admission. A numeric value (the number of visa-free days) is treated as visa-free. We map each value to one of our access categories exactly as documented in the dataset's README, and count only the three "no advance visa" categories toward the score.

Limitations

This is not legal or immigration advice. Visa rules change frequently and depend on factors the dataset cannot capture (purpose of travel, length of stay, dual nationality, transit).
The snapshot can lag real-world changes. Always confirm the current requirement with the destination's official government source before booking.
Coverage is 199 passports and 199 destinations; some micro-territories are not separately listed.
Detailed profiles launch for the most-searched passports; the rest still appear in the full ranking and are added in later waves.