Singaporeans can rejoice because they still hold the title of the world’s most powerful passport for 2025. For the past six years, Singapore boasts one of the most powerful passports – granting passport holders visa-free travel to more countries than anyone else worldwide. In the latest ranking on July 22, Singapore retained its title despite a slight dip from 195 countries visa-free to 193 countries. Here’s what we know about the ranking:
Powerful passports 2025
Interestingly, the 2025 Henley Passport Index had a major reshuffling this season. In fact, Singapore previously held the top spot jointly with five other countries including Japan, Germany, Spain, France, and Italy last year. However, Singapore emerged as the strongest passport country alone for 2025 in the earlier ranking in January 2025.
Unfortunately, Singapore lost visa-free and visa-on-arrival access to both Pakistan and Mauritania in West Africa after each destination switched to e-visa systems. Therefore, travellers must obtain approval before departure to these countries.
The quarterly ranking highlights that Singaporean passport holders can travel to 193 out of 227 destinations worldwide without a visa. The index includes 199 different passports globally. This year’s index means that citizens in the No.1 passport countries have visa-free access to a record-breaking number of places.
Additionally, Japan remained in second place for this year but now shares the #2 spot with South Korea. Meanwhile, third place is shared by a whopping seven European countries including France, Germany, Ireland, Denmark, Finland, Italy, and Spain. These nations have visa-free travel to 189 countries.
Here’s the top 10 most powerful passports for 2025:
1. Singapore (193 countries)
2. Japan, Korea (190)
3. Finland, France, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Ireland, Spain (189)
4. Austria, Belgium, Portugal, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden (188)
5. New Zealand, Greece, Switzerland (187)
6. United Kingdom (186)
7. Australia, Czechia, Hungary, Malta, Poland (185)
8. Canada, Estonia, United Arab Emirates (184)
9. Croatia, Latvia, Slovakia, Slovenia, (183)
10. Iceland, Lithuania, United States (182)
On the other hand, Afghanistan still ranks as the worst passport worldwide with access to just 25 countries without a visa. While countries like Syria, Iraq, Pakistan, and Yemen are also the world’s least powerful passports according to the index.
The passports are ranked using exclusive data from the International Air Transport Authority (IATA). The largest and most accurate travel information from IATA is then analysed by Henley & Partners based on how many countries passport holders can travel to without a visa prior to arrival such as the Singapore passport. See the Global Passport Ranking 2024.
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