Singapore named the most powerful passport in the world

The world’s most powerful passports for 2025 have been revealed, and Singapore has taken the top spot.

Singapore has reclaimed the top spot in the 2025 Henley Passport Index, offering visa-free access to 195 of 227 global destinations as the world’s most powerful passport. Japan followed closely, granting visa-free entry to 193 countries, including a significant development – visa-free travel to China for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic.

Also, explore our guide to visa-free countries for Indian passport holders.

World’s most powerful passports for 2025

Here are the ten most powerful passports in the world in 2025 based on the report by the Henley Passport Index. The number of destinations that can be accessed visa-free is mentioned against the respective countries.

1. Singapore | 195
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

The five EU member states at the third position — France, Germany, Italy, Finland and Spain — and seven EU member nominations at number four — Austria, Denmark, Ireland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway and Sweden — speak volumes about the ease of travel in the Schengen area.

The UAE has climbed 32 positions since 2015 and is now ranked 10th on this year’s most powerful passports list. China, too, has made a commendable leap from 94th in 2015 to 60th in 2025.

Countries that have fallen on the world’s most powerful passports list include Venezuela, the US (which dropped from the second to ninth position), the South Pacific archipelago of Vanuatu, and Canada.

On the other end of the ‘world’s most powerful passports’ list, Afghanistan featured at the 106th position with visa-free access to 26 countries, Syria reached the 105th position with visa-free entry to 27 destinations, and Iraq featured at the 104th position with visa-free access to 31 destinations.

2025 marks the 20th year of the Henley Passport Index, a list curated by Henley & Partners, a London-based company that deals with residence and citizenship by investment. The firm assesses global freedom across 227 countries and territories, analysing data shared exclusively by the International Air Transport Association (IATA).

(Feature image credit: Hu Chen/Unsplash)

This story originally appeared in Travel + Leisure Thailand