Singapore and Japan have broken away from the group of six countries that shared top spot last year to secure gold and silver, respectively. 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 as runner-up with a score of 193, according to the 2025 Henley Passport Index, which ranks all the world’s 199 passports according to the number of destinations they can access without a prior visa, and is based on exclusive official data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA).
Several EU member states — France, Germany, Italy, and Spain — drop two places to 3rd 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. A seven-nation EU cohort, all with visa-free access to 191 destinations — Austria, Denmark, Ireland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden — share 4th place, while five countries — Belgium, New Zealand, Portugal, Switzerland, and the UK — come in 5th with 190 visa-free destinations.
Afghanistan remains firmly entrenched 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 (6th place with 189 destinations), Canada (7th place with 188 destinations), the US (9th 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 10th place with visa-free access to 185 destinations worldwide.
US and UK passports amongst the 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 2nd to its current 9th position. Vanuatu is the third-biggest faller, followed by the British passport, which was top of the index in 2015 but now sits in 5th place. Completing the Top 5 losers list is Canada, which dropped three ranks over the past decade from 4th to its current 7th place. India’s passport has slipped from 80th to 85th rank in 2025, providing visa-free access to 57 countries.
In contrast, China is among the biggest climbers, ascending from 94th place in 2015 to 60th in 2025, with its visa-free score increasing by 40 destinations. And 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.
Commenting in the 2025 Henley Global Mobility Report, Annie Pforzheimer, Senior Associate at Washington thinktank the Center for Strategic and International Studies, says “even before the advent of a second Trump presidency, American political trends had become notably inward-looking and isolationist. Ultimately, if tariffs and deportations are the Trump Administration’s default policy tools, not only will the US continue to decline on the mobility index on a comparative basis, but it will probably do so in absolute terms as well. This trend in tandem with China’s greater openness will likely give rise to Asia’s greater soft power dominance worldwide.”
Americans are top applicants for second citizenships
US nationals currently constitute the single largest cohort of applicants for alternative residence and citizenship, accounting for a staggering 21% of all investment migration program applications received by Henley & Partners in 2024.
Commenting in the report, Prof. Peter J. Spiro, a leading expert on dual citizenship, says “the Trump reprise magnifies another element of value for alternative residence or citizenship rights: political risk insurance. This time around, the stakes are higher. There is a sense that what Trump wants, Trump will be able to get. His political agenda is mercurial, to say the least, and Americans can no longer take stability for granted. Trump can be fickle with outsiders, too. It is almost certain he will resurrect the infamous “travel bans” early in the new administration.”
Visa racism: Africans twice as likely to be rejected for Schengen visas
In exclusive new research conducted for Henley & Partners and published in the Henley Global Mobility Report 2025 Q1, Prof. Mehari Taddele Maru of the School of Transnational Governance and the Migration Policy Centre at the European University Institute and of Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, compared Schengen visa rejection rates for African applicants to those from other regions. “My latest research compares the 10 countries facing the highest Schengen visa rejection rates and reveals that while globally only one in six applications is rejected, one in two African applicants is rejected. In 2023, African countries accounted for just 2.8% of global applications out of a total of over 10 million worldwide, yet half of their applications were rejected. Even more concerning is that this trend has worsened over the past decade, with rejection rates more than doubling during this period.”
The research shows that among the top 10 countries facing the highest Schengen visa rejection rates, six are in Africa. Comoros fares the worst with a 61.3% rejection rate, followed by Guinea-Bissau at 51%, Ghana at 47.5%, Mali at 46.1%, Sudan at 42.3%, and Senegal at 41.2%. Three Asian countries and a European country complete the most-rejected list: Pakistan with 49.6%, Syria with 46%, and Bangladesh with 43.3%. The contrast becomes particularly stark when comparing Africa with Asia and global rates. Despite African countries submitting only half as many applications as Asian countries, African applicants were twice as likely to be rejected.
Prof. Maru says this pattern suggests that the variation in rejection rates between regions and nationalities extends beyond purely economic factors. “This growing disparity in visa rejection rates contributes to a broader pattern of global mobility inequality. As a result, African citizens find themselves at the bottom of the mobility ladder, which significantly limits their access to international economic opportunities. In short, the poorest individuals face the greatest difficulties when seeking to travel or move to more prosperous countries. I would argue that weak economies and discriminatory policies based on identity and culture explain the high rate of rejection for African Schengen visa applicants.”
Key travel trends in 2025: ETA and ETIAS
The world of travel is preparing itself for a digital overhaul in 2025. This year marks a pivotal uplift in digital border control, from the UK’s ETA expansions to the long-anticipated European Travel Information and Authorisation System (ETIAS). The UK has been rolling out its ETA system in phases. Initially open to Gulf Cooperation Council nationals in February 2024, the scheme extends to eligible non-European travelers this month (January 2025), including six million citizens from Australia, Canada, and the US. Eligible Europeans can apply from 5 March 2025 and will need an ETA to travel to the UK from 2 April 2025.
Similarly, Europe’s ETIAS, which has been delayed multiple times, is now expected to commence in May 2025. Those with a valid ETIAS authorization can enter 30 European countries as often as they want for short-term stays, normally for up to 90 days in any 180-day period.
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