Methodology

Passport data sources

Government visa data, World Bank GDP, and UNESCO heritage — what feeds the four passport indices.

Each passport index draws from a different authoritative source. Together they provide daily-updated passport intelligence across all four lenses.

Visa requirements

Government and public visa-requirements data, updated daily. This feeds both Mobility (raw count) and Friction access (weighted convenience). When a country changes its visa policy, our rankings reflect it within 24 hours.

World Bank GDP

World Bank economic indicators (constant USD) per country. This feeds GDP reach — the share of world GDP accessible to each passport. We use constant-dollar GDP to avoid exchange rate distortions.

UNESCO World Heritage

The UNESCO World Heritage Centre's official site list. This feeds Heritage — the share of the world's cultural sites accessible to each passport. Updated as UNESCO adds or modifies sites.

Update cadence

Daily. The visa requirements pipeline runs every day. GDP and heritage data update less frequently at the source (annually and as-needed), but we check for changes daily.

See it in action

Visit any country page to see all four passport indices with their source citations.