Singapore retains title as world's most powerful passport

The U.S. passport has dropped two positions this year to ninth place alongside Estonia. Despite providing its citizens visa-free entry to 186 countries, there has been no change since 2023 in terms of additional countries allowing entry without a visa for U.S. citizens.

Henley & Partners is a London-based advisory firm specializing in residence and citizenship. They release quarterly reports evaluating passports based on how many destinations can be accessed without a prior visa. These reports also consider economic strength using gross domestic product data from the World Bank.

Although the United States contributes significantly to global GDP, its position in the rankings remains unchanged due to limited growth in visa-free travel options for its citizens.

Completing the top ten are Austria, Denmark, Ireland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway and Sweden at fourth place; Belgium, New Zealand, Portugal, Switzerland and the UK at fifth; Australia and Greece at sixth; Canada, Malta and Poland at seventh; Czechia and Hungary at eighth; and Latvia, Lithuania Slovenia and UAE rounding out tenth place with varying numbers of accessible countries without visas.

Afghanistan remains at the bottom of the index with only 26 destinations available for travel without a visa—a decrease from last year's figure of 28 countries.