A passport is an important document for every traveler who always keeps it while traveling, especially during an overseas trip. But it is very important to understand the strength, quality and value of a country’s passport is a prime thing to a backpacker. In some countries, Passports are more powerful in the sense that you can travel to multiple different countries and destinations without a visa.
So, Recently Henley Global released World’s Best and Least Passport Index,2025. Henley Global is an organization that released the most powerful passports across the world every year including this year 2025-26. This index exclusively relies on the International Air Transport Association (IATA), one of the largest and most important travel information databases in the world. This Henley Passport index of 2025 includes 199 different passports and also measures a total of 227 destinations for access visa-free.
This Passport Index ranks the world’s passports by the total number of destinations their holders can enter to obtain visas. This time Singapore ranked 1st place inorder beat previous year Japan, a country which consistently ranked number 1 in the last 5 consecutive years. Japanese Passport gave visa-free access to 193 destinations during 2024 passport index.
The Most Powerful Passports in the World in 2025
- Singapore (193 Destinations)
- Japan and South Korea (190 Destinations)
- Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, and Spain (189 Destinations)
- Austria, Belgium, Luxembourg, Netherland, Norway, Portugal and Sweden (188 Destinations)
- Greece, New Zealand, and Switzerland (187 Destinations)
- United Kingdom (186 Destinations)
- Australia, Czechia, Hungary, Malta and Poland (185 Destinations)
- Canada, Estonia, and United Arab Emirates, Greece (184 Destinations)
- Croatia, Latvia, Slovakia and Slovenia (183 Destinations)
- Iceland, Lithuania and United States (182 Destinations)
Henley Passport Index states that this year U.S. passport index ranking dropped from 7th place to 10th place. And many European countries like France, Germany, Spain and Italy, drop 2nd place to 3rd place, where Finland and South Korea are joined to 2 and 3rd place respectively.
Least Powerful Passports in the World in 2025
- Afghanistan (25 Destinations)
- Syria (27 Destinations)
- Iraq (30 Destinations)
- Pakistan (32 Destinations)
- Yemen (32 Destinations)
- Somalia (33 Destination)
- Nepal (38 Destination)
- Palestinian Territory, Libya and Bangladesh (39 Destinations)
- North Korea and Eritrea (40 Destinations)
- Sudan, Sri Lanka and Iran (42 Destinations).
While evaluating the strongest and weakest passports in the world, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) organisation calculates many factors. Due to political instability, civil war, economic challenges, internal conflicts and bad diplomatic relations and travel agreements makes the strength of a country’s passport lower.
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