Singapore’s Passport Most Powerful Globally

Singapore reclaimed its crown as the most powerful passport in the world with visa-free access to 195 out of 227 destinations worldwide, leaving Japan in the runner-up spot with a score of 193 but still ahead of the rest after it regained visa-free access to neighbouring China for the first time since the COVID-19 lockdowns.

The 2025 Henley Passport Index, which ranks all the world’s 199 passports according to the number of destinations they can access visa-free, and is based on exclusive Timatic data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA).

Several EU member states such as France, Germany, Italy, and Spain dropped two places in the ranking to 3^rd position, and were joined by Finland and South Korea, which each lost a place over the past 12 months and now have access to 192 destinations with no prior visa required.

A seven-nation EU cohort, all with visa-free access to 191 destinations — Austria, Denmark, Ireland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden — shared 4^th place, while five countries — Belgium, New Zealand, Portugal, Switzerland, and the UK — came 5^th with 190 visa-free destinations.

On the other end of the mobility spectrum, Afghanistan, unsurprisingly, remains firmly entrenched at the bottom of the Henley Passport 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 international investment migration advisory firm Henley & Partners and the inventor of the passport index concept, said that the very notion of citizenship and its birth-right 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 need to introduce Free Global Cities to harness the untapped potential of displaced people and other migrants, transforming them from victims of circumstance into architects of their own futures has never been more pressing or apparent,” Dr Kaelin said.

The rest of the index’s Top 10 is largely dominated by European countries, except for Australia (6^th place with 189 destinations), Canada (7^th ith 188 destinations), the US (9^th with 186 destinations), and the UAE, the first and only Arab state to ever make it into the upper echelons of the rankings.

The UAE is one of the biggest climbers on the index over the past decade, having secured access to an additional 72 destinations since 2015, enabling it to climb 32 places to 10^th spot with visa-free access to 185 destinations worldwide.

US and UK Passports Among Biggest Fallers

Only 22 of the world’s 199 passports have fallen down the Henley Passport Index ranking over the past decade. Surprisingly, the US is the second-biggest faller between 2015 and 2025 after Venezuela, plummeting seven places from 2^nd to its current 9^th position.

Vanuatu is the third-biggest faller, losing six places from 48^th to 54^th position, followed by the British passport, which was top of the index in 2015 but now sits in 5^th place. Completing the Top 5 losers list is Canada, which dropped three ranks over the past decade from 4^th to its current 7^th place.

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

Millionaire Migration

Looking ahead to 2025, projections by Henley & Partners and New World Wealth indicate an even greater surge in millionaire migration worldwide, with 142,000 high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) with liquid investable wealth of $1 million or more expected to relocate and seek new horizons.