The world's most powerful passports of 2025 (and how Canada ranks)

Singapore has reclaimed its crown as the most powerful passport in the world with visa-free access to 195 out of 227 destinations worldwide, leaving Japan as runner-up with a score of 193, according to the 2025 Henley Passport Index, released Wednesday (Jan. 8).

The index ranks all the world's 199 passports according to the number of destinations they can access without a prior visa. It’s based on data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA).

Several EU member states — France, Germany, Italy, and Spain — dropped two places 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 visa-free, the report says.

A seven-nation EU cohort, all with visa-free access to 191 destinations — Austria, Denmark, Ireland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden — share flourth place, while five countries — Belgium, New Zealand, Portugal, Switzerland, and the UK — come in fifth with 190 visa-free destinations.

Afghanistan remains at the bottom of the 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 Henley & Partners, 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 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 U.S. (ninth place with 186 destinations), and the UAE, one of the biggest climbers over the past decade, having secured an additional 72 destinations since 2015 to put it in tenth place with visa-free access to 185 destinations worldwide.

U.S. & U.K. passports amongst biggest fallers

Only 22 of the world's 199 passports have fallen down the Henley Passport Index ranking over the past decade, the report shows.

The U.S. 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, 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.

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

In terms of its openness to other nations, China has also leapt up the Henley Openness Index, which ranks all 199 countries 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 58 nations, compared to its rival America, which ranks 84th and allows just 46 other countries access without a visa.

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