Holding a powerful national passport can literally take you places. But there are other factors which make these documents so highly valued.

At a cursory glance, a passport looks like an innocuous piece of identification. Laws in most places in fact allow them to be given to people who aren’t even from issuing country. But, in the real world, where a passport can make people eligible for numerous state benefits, things are little more complex.

Heavy passports

The relative heft of a national passport therefore depends on a variety of factors; how attainable it is, its value in immigration procedures and the cost. That in mind, GoEuro did an analysis of passports from across the world. They rated each passport on the number of countries it granted the holder visa-free access to and how expensive getting the passport was for citizens.

Access the world

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Surprisingly, the Swedish passport ranked first. Though Swedish passport holders can visit the same number of countries visa free as Finnish or US passport holders – 174 – it won because of its cheap 35 euro price tag. This means Swedes have to work only one hour at minimum wage to earn enough to be able to afford a passport.

Go west

Some things never change

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Still, Finland, United States and Germany all made it to the top 10 of the list, on the basis of the number of countries which offer Americans, Finns and Germans visa free entry. In the league of leading passports, the United States passport costs the most. It is priced at nearly $129, which comes to about 19 hours of work earning minimum wage.

Scribble quibble

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At the other end of the spectrum, Afghanistan has the least popular passport – only accorded a visa free entry by 28 countries. Iraq comes next in this list of infamy, with the Iraqi passport earning a visa free entry to only 35 countries. In terms of expense, a Liberian passport is worth about 278 hours of minimum wage work for an average citizen.