How the ATE Index is built.

One score from seven pillars.

The ATE Index gives each passport a score from 0 to 100. The score is the weighted sum of seven pillar scores. The weights add up to 100, and the two travel pillars, mobility quality (25) and mobility durability (10), together carry 35% of the total. The remaining 65% covers life and safety, the economic and financial environment, tax, digital readiness, and rights and stability.

The index covers 199 passports. 198 are ranked; Vatican City is listed but not ranked (see missing data). Passports with equal scores share a rank.

The seven pillars and their weights.

Pillar weight out of 100, with each indicator’s weight within its pillar in brackets.

The same weights in one table

From raw data to a score.

1. Scale each indicator. Each indicator is scaled from 0 to 100 across the 199 passports, using a logarithm where the spread is very wide.
2. Combine within the pillar. Indicators are combined within their pillar using the weights shown above, giving a pillar score from 0 to 100.
3. Combine the pillars. The total ATE score is the weighted sum of the seven pillar scores.
4. Rank. Passports are ranked by total score. Passports with equal scores share a rank.

The ranking table shows the total score to two decimals and pillar scores to one decimal.

How each destination is scored.

For each passport and destination, the entry regime is scored as follows. Entry to the United States and the United Kingdom follows the official lists.

These destination scores feed the mobility quality pillar, where access is weighted by the size of each destination’s economy (60) and by access to a premium bundle of destinations such as the Schengen area, the US, the UK, Canada, Japan and Australia (40). Mobility durability then asks whether that access has been lost or restricted in 2022–2026, how exposed citizenship-by-investment without residence is to EU visa-suspension rules, and how politically stable the issuing country is.

What the comparison columns mean.

• Access count. The number of destinations a passport can enter visa-free, with an electronic travel authorisation or with a visa on arrival, by our own count. It is shown for comparison and is not itself the ATE score.
• Count rank. The passport’s rank when passports are ordered by access count alone.
• Shift. Compares the ATE rank with the count rank. A positive shift means the passport ranks higher on the ATE Index than on the count; a negative shift means it ranks lower. Liechtenstein, for example, is #1 on the ATE Index and #37 by access count (shift +36); the United Arab Emirates is #1 by access count and #32 on the ATE Index (shift -31).

Estimated pillars and the † mark.

When an indicator is missing, its pillar is calculated from the indicators that are available. When less than half of a pillar’s data is available, we use the World Bank regional median for that pillar and mark the passport with †.

48 ranked passports carry the † mark. Their scores should be read as estimates.

Vatican City is listed but not ranked, because five of its seven pillars would be estimated, so a ranking would mostly reflect assumptions. Its estimated score is shown for reference only.

How nationality law is coded.

We code whether a citizen who voluntarily acquires another citizenship keeps this one. The code feeds the rights and stability pillar with a weight of 15.

The coding follows each country’s nationality law as recorded in the GLOBALCIT Citizenship Law Dataset v3.1 (law in force on 1 January 2024), updated from the law texts for Germany (allowed since 27 June 2024), China, Hong Kong and Macao (not allowed) and Vietnam (restricted, because Vietnamese law keeps a one-nationality principle with exceptions).

No coding was available for Andorra, Maldives, Monaco, Palestine, San Marino and Vatican City; for these, the pillar uses the remaining indicators.

What the score leaves out.

• Acquisition is kept separate. Whether a passport can be obtained by investment, and at what cost, does not change its score.
• Not advice. The ATE Index is general information, not legal, tax or immigration advice. Visa rules and nationality laws change; please confirm the current position for your situation with a qualified adviser.

Data vintage and updates.

We plan quarterly releases, in January, April, July and October, and an update after any major change in visa policy. Each release will be recorded on the updates page.

Data sources and licence.

1. Wikipedia contributors, “Visa requirements for [nationality] citizens” articles (199 articles), retrieved 1–2 November 2026. Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Link
2. U.S. Department of State, Visa Waiver Program (participating countries), 2026. Link
3. GOV.UK, Immigration Rules Appendix Visitor: Visa national list, 2026. Link
4. International Monetary Fund, World Economic Outlook (DataMapper): nominal GDP and GDP per capita PPP, 2025. Link
5. World Bank, Worldwide Governance Indicators, 2025 update (political stability, regulatory quality, rule of law, voice and accountability, control of corruption, government effectiveness). CC BY 4.0. Link
6. UNDP, Human Development Report 2025 (HDI 2023). Link
7. Institute for Economics & Peace, Global Peace Index 2026, as tabulated on Wikipedia “Global Peace Index” (CC BY-SA 4.0). Link
8. World Bank, World Development Indicators: intentional homicides (UNODC), current health expenditure per capita PPP (WHO), internet users (ITU); Global Findex account ownership. CC BY 4.0. Link
9. FATF, “High-risk and other monitored jurisdictions”, public statements of October 2026. Link
10. Wikipedia contributors, “List of countries by tax rates”, retrieved November 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0). Link
11. United Nations, E-Government Survey 2024 (EGDI). Link
12. GOV.UK, “Entering the UK: at border control” (eGates eligibility), 2026; U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Global Entry eligibility, 2026. Link
13. Regulation (EU) 2025/2441 amending the visa-suspension mechanism, and UK, Canadian, U.S. and EU visa decisions 2022–2026 (UK Parliament written statements; IRCC; Presidential Proclamation 10998 of 16 December 2025). Link
14. Vink, M., van der Baaren, L., Bauböck, R., Džankić, J., Honohan, I., Manby, B., GLOBALCIT Citizenship Law Dataset v3.1, European University Institute (law in force on 1 January 2024). Licensed under CC BY 4.0; recoded by AT Express into three levels, with changes noted below. Link
15. National nationality laws used to update the dual-citizenship coding: Vietnam Law on Nationality 24/2008/QH12, Art. 4, as amended by Laws 56/2014/QH13 and 79/2025/QH15; Nationality Law of the People’s Republic of China, Arts. 3 and 9 (also applied in Hong Kong and Macao under Annex III of each Basic Law); Germany, Act to Modernise Nationality Law (StARModG), in force 27 June 2024.