In 2025, Singapore has reclaimed its crown as the world’s most powerful passport with visa-free access to an extraordinary 195 of the 227 global destinations included in the list.
As reliable as fireworks at midnight to ring in January 1st, the new year also brings with it the annual results of the Henley Passport Index. Based on unique Timatic data from the world’s largest and most accurate database of travel information, the International Air Transport Association (IATA), backed up by in-house research, it ranks all 199 of the world’s most powerful passports based on how many of 227 global travel destinations they grant visa-free access to.
After the congestion of countries vying for the top spot in 2024 with no fewer than six sharing the same level of visa-free global access, competition has thinned out considerably in 2025. The impact of major wars, political upheaval and climate concerns continue to play their part in the statuses and accessibility of many countries and the rights of their citizens to travel. This year’s Henley Index shows us just how much.
The Top Five Most Powerful Passports
In 2025, Singapore has reclaimed its crown as the world’s most powerful passport with visa-free access to an extraordinary 195 of the 227 global destinations included in the list. This sees it open a clear gap to second-ranked Japan, which now grants access to 193 destinations without a visa, including for the first time since the global travel lockdown, China.
Having shared the number one spot in 2024, the EU member states of France, Germany, Italy and Spain all drop two places to share third position. They’re joined by Finland and South Korea, with all six passports granting visa-free access in 2025 to 192 destinations.
Things are equally crowded in fourth place with a seven-nation cohort of EU countries all offering access to 191 destinations without the need for a visa. These include Austria, Denmark, Ireland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway and Sweden.
Rounding out the top five ranked places are Belgium, Portugal, Switzerland, the UK and straying out of Europe, New Zealand, which all allow for travel to 190 destinations visa-free. This represents yet another downturn for the U.K. in particular, which has seen its passport power fluctuate and wane greatly over the last decade from its previous long-held number one position.
U.S. among the biggest fallers in world’s most powerful passports
Noticeably absent from the top five is the U.S. passport, which now sits in ninth position—a significant drop from its traditional first and second ranking a decade ago. Today, U.S. passport holders can visit 186 destinations without prior need for a visa.
To put that in context, of the world’s 199 passports, only 22 have dropped down the ranking in the last decade. The U.S. is the second biggest faller, beaten only by Venezuela (45th), and just ahead of the tiny island nation of Vanuatu (54th), the UK and Canada, which has dropped from fourth to seventh.
By contrast, the biggest climbers up the ranking over the last decade include the UAE, which has become the first and only Arab state to crack the top ten in the passport power index. It has secured visa-free access to 72 more destinations since 2015 and has climbed 32 places to round out the passport power top ten with 185 global destinations.
China too has risen from a lowly 94th in 2015 to 60th in 2025. The global superpower has also risen on the Henley Openness Index, which ranks all 199 countries and territories worldwide according to the number of nationalities they permit entry to without a prior visa. China granted visa-free access to 29 new countries over the past year alone, and now sits in 80th position with visa-free entry for 58 nations. Compare this to the U.S., which ranks below it in 84th, allowing citizens of just 46 countries access without a prior visa.
Notably, U.S. citizens now rank first in applications for second citizenship and alternative residence. They account for a staggering 21% of all investment migration program applications made to Henley in 2024.
CEO Dr. Juerg Steffen says the firm has more U.S. clients than the next four biggest nationalities (Turkish, Filipino, Indian and British) combined. “Faced with unprecedented volatility, investors and wealthy families are adopting a strategy of geopolitical arbitrage to acquire additional residence and/or citizenship options to hedge against jurisdictional risk and leverage the differences in legal, economic, political, and social conditions across countries to optimize their personal, financial, and lifestyle outcomes.”
The least powerful passports in the world
Still rooted to the bottom of the Henley Index in 2025 is Afghanistan. Losing visa-free access to two more destinations in 2024, this has created the largest mobility gap in the index’s 19 year history. To put that in context, if you hold a Singaporean passport you have access to 169 more destinations around the world without the need for a visa than if you’re an Afghan passport holder.
