Visa access to the EU

Currently, citizens of 61 non EU countries, 2 special administrative regions of China and 2 territorial authorities that are not recognised as a state by at least one Member State can enter the EU without a visa. This means that 1.4 billion third country nationals (about 18 % of the global population) can travel to the EU without a visa (see Figure 13). Citizens of the US, Brazil, Mexico and Japan make up 60 % of all visa free third country nationals. As for the remaining 6.1 billion third country nationals in the world, they are required to obtain a visa before traveling to the EU. This includes citizens of China, India and the Russian Federation.