How 'powerful' is the Australian passport and where does it rank in the world?

NEWS: A report this week ranked Australia's standard passport as the equal seventh most powerful in the world, but just how does it compare to other countries?

หนังสือเดินทางออสเตรเลีย Source: SBS

The Henley Passport Index - a project by citizenship planning firm Henley & Partners Citizens, which covers 199 different passports and 227 destinations - is based on data from the International Air Transport Authority.

The Australian passport currently gives holders access to 183 nations without having to pay a fee or pre-apply for a visa before arriving.

It comes as demand for Australian citizenship reaches never-before-seen levels, with the federal government revealing in August close to 189,000 people were waiting for their citizenship applications to be processed.

Nine in 10 applications are now taking almost a year and a half to be processed, SBS News reported at the time.

The cost of getting an Australian passport became $282 in January this year, up from $277.

You can read the full article in English here.