Singapore leads in 2025's most powerful passports; India drops to 85th

Singapore has reclaimed its place at the top of a quarterly ranking of the world’s most powerful passports. Holders of this passport enjoy visa-free access to 195 out of 227 destinations worldwide, according to the Henley Passport Index.

Japan is second in the ranking, with an open door to 193 destinations, having secured the silver medal by regaining visa-free access to neighboring China for the first time since the Covid-19 lockdowns. The EU member states of France, Germany, Italy and Spain are at No. 3, along with Finland and South Korea, with access to 192 destinations with no prior visa needed.

 

 

"Several EU member states — France, Germany, Italy, and Spain — drop two places in the ranking to 3rd 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. A seven-nation EU cohort, all with visa-free access to 191 destinations — Austria, Denmark, Ireland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden — share 4th place, while five countries — Belgium, New Zealand, Portugal, Switzerland, and the UK — come in 5th with 190 visa-free destinations," said Henley and Partners in a statement.

 

The most powerful passports for 2025

1. Singapore (195 destinations)

 

2. Japan (193)

 

3. France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Finland, South Korea (192)

 

4. Austria, Denmark, Ireland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Sweden, Norway (191)

 

5. Belgium, New Zealand, Portugal, Switzerland, United Kingdom (190)

 

6. Greece, Australia (189)

 

7. Canada, Poland, Malta (188)

 

8. Hungary, Czechia (187)

 

9. Estonia, United States (186)

 

10. Lithuania, Latvia, Slovenia, United Arab Emirates (185)

 

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, Henley & Partners 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.

 

India ranking:

 

India emerged as 85th on the list, which means Indian passport holders can travel visa free to 57 nations of the world.  

India's Ranking History on the Henley Passport Index (2006-2025)

 

2006: 71st

2007: 73rd

2008: 75th

2009: 75th

2010: 77th

2011: 78th

2012: 82nd

2013: 74th

2014: 76th

2015: 88th

2016: 85th

2017: 87th

2018: 81st

2019: 82nd

2020: 82nd

2021: 90th

2022: 83rd

2023: 84th

2024: 80th

2025: 85th

 

 

Over the nearly two decades covered, India’s ranking has experienced notable fluctuations. It reached its highest rank of 71st in 2006 and has seen several years of decline, particularly between 2015 and 2021.The drop to 90th place in 2021 likely reflects the global travel restrictions imposed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, impacting mobility and visa access.Since 2021, India’s ranking has shown signs of recovery, moving back up to 80th in 2024 and projected to be 85th in 2025.

 

On the other end of the mobility spectrum, Afghanistan, unsurprisingly, remains firmly entrenched at the bottom of the Henley Passport 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 international investment migration advisory firm Henley & Partners and the inventor of the passport index concept, 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 need to introduce Free Global Cities to harness the untapped potential of displaced people and other migrants, transforming them from victims of circumstance into architects of their own futures has never been more pressing or apparent”.

 

The rest of the index’s Top 10 is largely dominated by European countries, except for Australia (6th place with 189 destinations), Canada (7th place with 188 destinations), the US (9th place with 186 destinations), and the UAE, the first and only Arab state to ever make it into the upper echelons of the rankings. 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 10th spot with visa-free access to 185 destinations worldwide.

 

US and UK passports among 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 2nd to its current 9th 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 5th place. Completing the Top 5 losers list is Canada, which dropped three ranks over the past decade from 4th to its current 7th place.

 

In contrast, China is among the biggest climbers over the past decade, ascending from 94th place in 2015 to 60th in 2025, with its visa-free score increasing by 40 destinations in that time. 

 

And in terms of its openness to other nations, China 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 a further 29 countries over the past year alone, and now sits in 80th position, granting visa-free entry to a total of 58 nations as the new year commences, compared to its rival America, which ranks 84th and allows just 46 other countries access without a prior visa.

 

"“Even before the advent of a second Trump presidency, American political trends had become notably inward-looking and isolationist. Even though US economic health relies heavily on immigration, tourism, and trade, voters during the 2024 presidential campaign were fed a narrative that America can (and should) stand alone. 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," said  Annie Pforzheimer, Senior Associate at Washington thinktank the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

 

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. CEO Dr. Juerg Steffen says the firm has more American clients than the next four biggest nationalities — Turkish, Filipino, Indian, and Brits — 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.”