New York: Henley & Partners has released the 2025 list of world’s most powerful passports. Singapore has claimed first spot with access to around 193 countries. Singapore is followed by South Korea and Japan, both with access to 190 out of 227 countries across the world.
Further, seven countries made it to third position3 on the list with access to 187 destinations — namely, Spain, Germany, Italy, France, Ireland, Finland and Denmark. The top 10 countries — all occupying #1 and #2 spots were dominated by East Asian and European powers.
India is at the #80 position on the list this year with access to 56 countries visa-free. We share this spot with Tajikistan, Algeria and Equatorial Guinea.
Myanmar is at #88, Sri Lanka is placed at #91 (jointly placed with Iran), Bangladesh is at #93 (joint spot with Libya and Palestine), Nepal at #94 and Pakistan at #96 (with Yemen).
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The 2025 Henley Passport Index ranks 199 passports based on the number of destinations one can access visa-free when using them. As per the official website, the data is sourced from the International Air Transport Association (IATA).
The bottom three were — Iraq in #97 spot with access to 30 countries; war-torn Syria in #98 position with access to 27 destinations; and at #99 spot, Afghanistan took the last place, with access to only 25 countries.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) was the biggest gainer on the Henley Index, adding 72 destinations since 2015 to land on #10 position (from #32 in 2015) — the only Arab nation in the top 10, with visa-free access to 185 countries. Also a big gainer is China, landing at #59 spot (from #94 in 2015) with access to 83 destinations.
In terms of the biggest fall, the troubled South American nation of Venezuela (at #44 with 199 country access), and Donald Trump-led United States were the biggest losers in terms of visa-free access position when compared over the 10-year period from 2015-2025. The US is now on #9 with 183 visa-free destinations — but with multiple countries occupying joint top spots ahead of it, the comparative positioning is much lower. Notably, it also used to long occupy the #2 spot behind Japan.
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