Your passport is a whole lot more than that essential packing-list item for when you’re heading abroad – depending on where you’re a citizen, it has a huge impact on how many countries you have visa-free access to.
Every quarter, the Henley Passport Index unveils an updated ranking of passports based on which will grant holders access to the most countries visa-free (which uses data sourced from the International Air Transport Association), and Singapore has claimed first place – again.
All holders of a passport for the city-state in southeast Asia have visa-free access to a whopping 193 countries, and while that’s two fewer than this time last year, it’s still comfortably ahead of second-place rankers, Japan and South Korea, which have visa-access to 190.
Third place on the list is occupied exclusively by seven European countries which all have visa-free access to 189 countries respectively, and that’s followed by seven more European countries with access to 188.
In position number 10 are Iceland, Lithuania and notably the US. Though the States held the first-place position as the most powerful passport on the planet in 2014, it’s now on the brink of dropping out of the top 10 altogether, for the first time in the index’s history.
These are the world’s most powerful passports in 2025
- Singapore
- Japan, South Korea
- Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Spain
- Austria, Belgium, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Sweden
- Greece, New Zealand, Switzerland
- UK
- Australia, Czechia, Hungary, Malta, Poland
- Canada, Estonia, United Arab Emirates
- Croatia, Latvia, Slovakia, Slovenia
- Iceland, Lithuania, USA
Read the full index report on Henley’s website here.
Did you see that the world’s best (and worst) airports were revealed in a new ranking?
Plus: This spectacular national park in northern Spain has been crowned best in Europe.
Stay in the loop: sign up to our free Travel newsletter for all the latest travel news and best stuff happening across the world.
