India stands at 85th position in world's most powerful passport list, Pakistan struggles at 103

Indian passport has fallen five notches from 80 in 2024 to 85 this year in the list of the world’s most powerful passports, published bi-annually by Henley and Partners.  

An Indian passport holder has visa-free access to 57 countries across the world now, the list says. In 2024, Indians could travel to 62 countries without a visa.

India ranked 90 in 2021 but peaked to 80 last year to fall by five ranks in 2025.

Pakistan slipped behind Bangladesh (100) and Somalia (102) and Nepal (101) in the list.

The list 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).

A statement released by Henley and Partners said: "Singapore reclaims 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 lockdowns."

Several EU member states — France, Germany, Italy, and Spain — drop two places in the ranking 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 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 — share 4th place, while five countries — Belgium, New Zealand, Portugal, Switzerland, and the UK — come in 5th with 190 visa-free destinations.

Afghanistan remained firmly entrenched at the bottom of the Henley Passport Index, having lost visa-free access to a further two destinations over the past year.

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, 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 10th spot with visa-free access to 185 destinations worldwide.

US and UK passports among 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, losing six places from 48th to 54th position, 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.

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

Dr. Christian H. Kaelin, Chairman of international investment migration advisory firm Henley & Partners and the inventor of the passport index concept, said “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," Christian H. Kaelin said.

"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," Kaelin said.