The Henley Passport Index (Henley Passport Index) is an indicator created by Henley & Partners to measure the power of the world's various passports. To do this, this indicator compares 199 passports and 227 travel destinations. Basically, each passport in the index receives a score that corresponds to the number of destinations for which no visa is required.
Passports that open the most borders in 2025
In 2025, it's Singapore which occupies first place in the ranking with a visa-free access to 193 destinations out of 227 possible. Last year, six countries shared the title of the world's strongest passport: France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Singapore, and Spain. But the France (and its European neighbors) dropped two places with access to 2 destinations, five fewer than in 189. It shares this place with Denmark, Finland, Germany, Ireland and Italy.
Japan positions itself at the second place With 190 destinations, the Land of the Rising Sun has long dominated this ranking, notably thanks to its neutrality in international conflicts.
Generally speaking, passports of European countries, as well as those of Singapore, New Zealand, Japan et South Korea, remain at the top of the ranking, providing access to more than 189 destinations. Conversely, United States fall to the ninth position, after having occupied the sixth in 2024. Their passport now allows access to 183 countries, a decline attributed to some changes in their diplomatic relations.
From a regional perspective, 23 of the 30 most powerful passports are in Europe (including the UK), three are in Asia, while two are from North America and two are from Oceania.
Finally, for comparison, Visualcapitalist.com compiled an infographic to visualize the most powerful passports in the world in 2024.
France among the most powerful passports in the world
Like Europe and its significant diplomatic openness, France was ranked first in 2024 and sixth in 6. In 2023, it benefited from the openness of China, which no longer requires visas from European nationals.
In 2025, France lost two places and visa-free access to five countries. It now ranks third in the rankings, with 2 countries accessible without a visa.
Since Henley began an index of the world's most powerful passports in 2006, France has consistently ranked among the top six countries offering passports that open the most borders.
Passports to avoid for easy travel
Although the most powerful passports have often been the same since 2006 (European countries and Japan in particular), some countries issue their nationals passports that are not very advantageous for travel.
In fact, Afghanistan occupies the 103rd and last place in the ranking, offering visa-free access to only 25 countries with its passport... Suffice to say that if you are Afghan, you will have to hang on tight to achieve a world Tour without being weighed down by administrative formalities.
Syria, at 102nd place, is not much better off, as it only allows access to two more countries, making a total of 27.
Finally, to finish the "worst 3", Iraq and its 101st position opens the borders of 30 countries in the world.
A global trend: more visa-free access
One of the significant movements on a global scale is the increase in the number of countries accessible without a visaIn 2006, on average, a passport allowed visa-free travel to 58 countries. By 2023, this figure had nearly doubled to 111 countries.
In any case, if you want to know more, the Henley Index website is very well put together and will allow you to know for each country its evolution and the countries to which it has visa-free access.
