The 16 countries with the most powerful passports

If you have citizenship in Sweden, you have a great deal of traveling power - Swedes can fly to 158 countries without ever showing a visa. This makes international travel cheaper and easier than it is for citizens of many other countries, like those of Afghanistan, who can only enter 24 countries without a visa.

These stark differences are revealed in the Passport Index, which ranks countries based on the number of nations where residents can go without purchasing a visa in advance or on arrival. Global financial advisory firm Arton Capital compiled government data from 193 countries and six territories to create the 2016 ranking.

The United States makes the top 16, but that could change over the next four years under the Trump administration, according to Arton Capital CEO John Hanafin. If US foreign policy relations sour with other countries, like Mexico and Germany, visa-free agreements could freeze or break, which would damage the passport power for Americans.

Here are the 16 highest-ranking countries.