The World's Most (and Least) Powerful Passports in 2025

LONDON, Jan. 8, 2025 /CNW/ -- Singapore reclaims its crown as the most powerful passport in the world with visa-free access to 195 out of 227 destinations worldwide, leaving Japan as runner-up with a score of 193, according to the 2025 Henley Passport Index, which ranks all the world's 199 passports according to the number of destinations they can access without a prior visa, and is based on exclusive official data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA).

Several EU member states — France, Germany, Italy, and Spain — drop two places to 3^rd position, and are joined by Finland and South Korea, which each lost a place over the past 12 months and now have access to 192 destinations visa-free. A seven-nation EU cohort, all with visa-free access to 191 destinations — Austria, Denmark, Ireland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden — share 4^th place, while five countries — Belgium, New Zealand, Portugal, Switzerland, and the UK — come in 5^th with 190 visa-free destinations.

Afghanistan remains firmly entrenched at the bottom of the index, having lost visa-free access to a further two destinations over the past year, creating the largest mobility gap in the index's 19-year history, with Singaporeans able to travel to 169 more destinations visa-free than Afghan passport holders. Dr. Christian H. Kaelin, Chairman of Henley & Partners, says "the very notion of citizenship and its birthright lottery needs a fundamental rethink as temperatures rise, natural disasters become more frequent and severe, displacing communities and rendering their environments uninhabitable. Simultaneously, political instability and armed conflicts in various regions force countless people to flee their homes in search of safety and refuge."

The rest of the index's Top 10 is largely dominated by European countries, except for Australia (6^th place with 189 destinations), Canada (7^th place with 188 destinations), the US (9^th place with 186 destinations), and the UAE, one of the biggest climbers over the past decade, having secured an additional 72 destinations since 2015 to put it in 10^th place with visa-free access to 185 destinations worldwide.

US and UK passports amongst the biggest fallers

Only 22 of the world's 199 passports have fallen down the Henley Passport Index ranking over the past decade. Surprisingly, the US is the second-biggest faller between 2015 and 2025 after Venezuela, plummeting seven places from 2^nd to its current 9^th position. Vanuatu is the third-biggest faller, followed by the British passport, which was top of the index in 2015 but now sits in 5^th place. Completing the Top 5 losers list is Canada, which dropped three ranks over the past decade from 4^th to its current 7^th place.

In contrast, China is among the biggest climbers, ascending from 94^th place in 2015 to 60^th in 2025, with its visa-free score increasing by 40 destinations. And in terms of its openness to other nations, China has also leapt up the Henley Openness Index, which ranks all 199 countries worldwide according to the number of nationalities they permit entry to without a prior visa. China granted visa-free access to a further 29 countries over the past year alone, and now sits in 80^th position, granting visa-free entry to 58 nations, compared to its rival America, which ranks 84^th and allows just 46 other countries access without a visa.

Commenting in the 2025 Henley Global Mobility Report, Annie Pforzheimer, Senior Associate at Washington thinktank the Center for Strategic and International Studies, says "even before the advent of a second Trump presidency, American political trends had become notably inward-looking and isolationist. Ultimately, if tariffs and deportations are the Trump Administration's default policy tools, not only will the US continue to decline on the mobility index on a comparative basis, but it will probably do so in absolute terms as well. This trend in tandem with China's greater openness will likely give rise to Asia's greater soft power dominance worldwide."

Americans are top applicants for second citizenships

US nationals currently constitute the single largest cohort of applicants for alternative residence and citizenship, accounting for a staggering 21% of all investment migration program applications received by Henley & Partners in 2024.

Commenting in the report, Prof. Peter J. Spiro, a leading expert on dual citizenship, says "the Trump reprise magnifies another element of value for alternative residence or citizenship rights: political risk insurance. This time around, the stakes are higher. There is a sense that what Trump wants, Trump will be able to get. His political agenda is mercurial, to say the least, and Americans can no longer take stability for granted. Trump can be fickle with outsiders, too. It is almost certain he will resurrect the infamous "travel bans" early in the new administration."

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SOURCE Henley & Partners

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