Passports
Passports are documents that indicate permission granted by a country to its own citizen to gain access to other countries and allow return to their home country without any issues. Essentially passports not only allow an individual to properly gain access to other countries they wish to visit, but they also ensure that a citizen can safely re-enter their home country of origin without any issues. Passports allow people to pass back and forth between countries safely and freely. Passports used to only be required by United States citizens if they traveled outside of North America, but now these documents are even required for travel to Canada and Mexico. Passports became even more pressing in recent years as the push for them to become a form of identification came about.
Fast Facts
- With the recent jump on passports, this meant that a record breaking number of 16,208,003 were issued within the United States.
- The number of passports issued jumped 300% between 1974 and 2004 as more individuals wished to gain access to international companies.
- In 2001, over 40% of the population in Canada owned a passport.
