When Finland updated their passports in 2013, the country added a series of images to the bottom of each page. When you rapidly flip through a Finnish passport, you see an animation of a walking moose. Over 100,000 moose can be found in the forests of Finland.

Diplomatic passports can be granted to people traveling for official business and representing their country abroad. These passports have the power to exempt its holder from prosecution and from foreign taxes while in the host country. Emergency passports are temporarily granted in the case of a lost or stolen passport, and collective passports can be granted to a group of travelers together, such as students on a trip.

American passports contain a series of identifying facts including date of birth, place of birth, gender, name, date of passport issue and expiration date, passport number and the signature of the passport holder. Unlike many drivers licenses, however, U.S. passports do not contain physical information like height, weight, or eye color.

Allowing access to 27 nations, Afghanistan’s passport is the world’s least powerful passport, as of 2023. Other countries that come close to that number include Iraq (29), Syria (30), Pakistan (32), Yemen (34), Somalia (35), Nepal (38), and North Korea (40).

While more than 60% of people with a household income of at least $100,000 have a passport, only 21% of people with a household income of under $50,000 have one. According to the Economist, political party affiliation has very little correlation to whether or not an American has a passport — 41% of Democrats have one versus 38% of Republicans.

According to a study by the Economist, 37% of Americans have a valid current passport. Another 20% of Americans have an expired or otherwise invalid passport. About 38% of people in the United States have never had a valid passport at any point, but roughly 70% of Americans have traveled internationally at least once in their lives.

When Norway redesigned their passport in 2020, they added a feature that can only be seen under ultraviolet light: the northern lights. In Norway, the spectacular natural light show (otherwise known as aurora borealis) can typically be seen in the sky between late September and late March. The new Norwegian passport also comes in three different shades.

The European Union is nearly unified in its use of red passports, with the notable exception of Croatia. While there is no official obligation for European Union passports to be colored similarly, Croatia is the only one of 27 that remains blue. The Croatian government chose not to change to red to avoid confusion with the former Yugoslavian travel document.

Uniforms are not permitted in passport photos unless it is a religious uniform worn on a daily basis.Hats are also disallowed unless they are part of a religious head covering. Glasses also are not allowed in passport photos, unless they cannot be removed for medical reasons. Hearing aids may be worn if they are worn regularly.

During the American Revolution, the first American passports were issued by a group including Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and Arthur Lee. Franklin was serving as minister to France during the Revolutionary War, and he modeled the passport after the French system. The first passport was issued on December 27, 1778, to a group traveling to Holland.

English King Henry V created a passport to help his subjects be identified in foreign lands, and the document was referenced in a 1414 Act of Parliament. Shakespeare even mentioned the passport in his play “Henry V.” The king declares, “He which hath no stomach to this fight, let him depart, his passport shall be made.”

For sheer traveling power, no passport tops Japan’s. According to global citizenship advisory firm Henley & Partners, the Japanese passport grants citizens visa-free transport to a record 193 nations. Singapore and South Korea closely follow, with each passport granting travel to 192 different countries. As of 2023, The United States passport allowed entry to 186 countries.

If the applicant is at least 16 years old, an American passport is valid for 10 years. For those 16 and under, a passport is valid for five years before it must be renewed. If you are under 16, you must have parental or guardian consent to apply for a passport. When you renew a passport you may have the old, invalid document returned to you.

The first American passports were issued during the Revolutionary War, and more closely resembled a high school diploma instead of the small booklets common today. The earliest passports needed to be renewed once every three to six months, and that style of passport remained in use for over a century, until 1900.

While blue is the most common choice of the four passport cover colors, black is the rarest. Only seven nations have black covers. Black is considered the national color of New Zealand (its sports teams don black uniforms). Along with New Zealand, the African countries of Angola, Congo, and Malawi; Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean, Takihistan, and the Palestinian Territories also have black passport covers.

Most (although not all) countries will record a traveler’s entry by stamping their passport. Some countries, like Japan, will use a sticker instead. Stamps provide proof that a traveler has entered a country for a certain period of time, showing the type of travel, the amount of time the person is permitted to stay, and the date of the stamp.

The next time you’re standing in line at customs, take a look at the passports and you may notice a theme. Passports around the world are only made in four shades: red, blue, green, and black. While there aren’t any official rules around color, the reason for the limited variety is because these simple, dark hues make the documents look more official. Blue is the most common choice.

In the United States, only the State Department has the power to issue or verify passports for American citizens. You can apply for a passport via a local post office, where you can also renew passports or obtain replacement pages. The typical turnaround for a passport from application to verification is about six weeks.

Passport photos must be in color, taken in front of a white or off-white background, show a neutral facial expression, and be zoomed in enough so that the person’s face takes up about half the space of the photo. The picture also needs to have been taken within six months of the issuing date of the passport, so it reflects the individual's current appearance.

Passport cover colors don’t always stay the same — the U.S. passport has actually been all four colors at some point in its history. America’s first modern-style passport, issued starting in 1926, was red. Red was replaced by green from 1941 to 1976, when today’s blue option was introduced to match the flag, in honor of the country’s bicentennial celebrations.