A SPANISH passport is the fifth-most 'useful' in the world, according to official figures about where citizens can travel to and how.
The Henley Passport Index, drawn up by London-based consultation firm Henley & Partners, uses data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA), and found that the most valuable passport anyone can hold is a Japanese one, since this allows nationals to travel to 191 countries without needing a visa.
A Singaporean passport is the next-best thing, as its holders can travel to 190 countries without a visa, and a German or South Korean passport are joint third, permitting entry to 189 countries visa-free.
Finland and Italy are joint fourth, allowing visa-free travel to 188 countries, whilst Spain comes fifth along with Luxembourg and Denmark, all of whose passports let their holders get into 187 countries without a visa.
A Spanish passport beats a French or Swedish one, which allows for visa-free travel to 186 countries.
Joint seventh, permitting the holder to get into 185 countries without a visa, are passports held by citizens of Austria, Ireland, The Netherlands, Portugal, and Switzerland.
Although the figures have only just been released, they are based upon the value of international passports as at January 7, when the UK had not yet left the European Union, although this was on the cards at the time – on that date, and still the 28th member State, a passport from Britain was joint eighth along with Belgium, Greece, Norway and the USA, and its holders could get into 184 countries without a visa.
With 183 visitable countries, Australia, Canada, the Czech Republic, Malta and New Zealand came next, and the top 10 was completed by Hungary, Lithuania and Slovakia, whose passports permit travel to 181 countries without a visa.
The lowest-ranked EU passport was from Croatia, giving entry to 169 countries, just below Bulgaria (171) and Romania (172) and just above San Marino (168) and Andorra (167).
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com