Singapore has emerged as the world’s most powerful passport in 2025, closely followed by Japan in the second spot, a new ranking has revealed.
According to the 2025 Henley Passport Index, which ranks the world’s 199 passports according to the number of destinations they can access visa-free, Singapore ranks first with a visa-free score of 195, followed by 193 for Japan.
The rankings, based on data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA), show that several EU member states — France, Germany, Italy, and Spain — have dropped two places in the ranking to third 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 with no prior visa required.
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A seven-nation EU cohort, all with visa-free access to 191 destinations — Austria, Denmark, Ireland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden — share the fourth place, while five countries — Belgium, New Zealand, Portugal, Switzerland, and the UK — come in fifth with 190 visa-free destinations.
Weakest passports
On the other end of the mobility spectrum, Afghanistan, remained firmly entrenched at the bottom of the Henley Passport Index with a score of 26, 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.
Just above Afghanistan are Syria with a score of 27, and Iraq with a score of 31. Pakistan and Yemen have a visa-free score of 33 each.
Other strong passports
The rest of the index’s top 10 is largely dominated by European countries, except for Australia (sixth place with 189 destinations), Canada (seventh place with 188 destinations), the US (ninth place with 186 destinations), and the UAE, the first and only Arab state to ever make it into the upper echelons of the rankings.
Big stride for UAE
The UAE is one of the biggest climbers on the index over the past decade, having secured access to an additional 72 destinations since 2015, enabling it to climb 32 places to tenth spot with visa-free access to 185 destinations worldwide.
US, UK passports see big drops
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 second to its current ninth position. Vanuatu is the third-biggest faller, losing six places from 48th to 54th position, followed by the British passport, which was top of the index in 2015 but now sits in fifth place. Completing the top 5 losers list is Canada, which dropped three ranks over the past decade from fourth to its current seventh place.
