U.S. passport drops out of list of top 10 most powerful passports

For the first time in 20 years, the U.S. passport is no longer in the list of top 10 most powerful passports in the world.

What makes a passport “powerful”? It is often defined by the ability to travel to destinations around the world with only one’s passport and no visa required.

The Henley Passport Index is one of multiple rankings measuring passport potency, and this is the first time in the index’s 20-year history that the U.S. passport has fallen out of its top 10.

The list is now topped by three Asian passports: Singapore, which has visa-free access to 193 countries and territories; South Korea, with access to 190; and Japan, with access to 189.

In Henley’s latest quarterly ranking, the United States is tied with Malaysia for 12th place. Citizens of both countries have visa-free access to 180 of the 227 countries and territories tracked in the index.

Because Henley counts multiple countries tied for the same score as a single spot in the standings, the U.S. is actually behind 36 other countries on the list.

The Henley Index was created by the London-based global citizenship and residence advisory firm Henley & Partners, and it uses data from the International Air Transport Association, per CNN.

What changed?

In 2014, the U.S. held the top spot on the list, and this summer it was still within the top 10, so why did it continue to fall?

There were a series of access changes that occurred this year, according to The Economic Times.

In April, Brazil took away visa-free access for citizens of the U.S., Australia and Canada because of a lack of reciprocity. Myanmar and Papua New Guinea also tweaked their entry policies, which reduced the United States’ score. The country was also excluded from China’s expanding visa-free list.

Most recently, Somalia rolled out an eVisa system and Vietnam excluded the U.S. from its new visa-free list, pushing American passports out of the top 10.

“The declining strength of the U.S. passport over the past decade is more than just a reshuffle in rankings — it signals a fundamental shift in global mobility and soft power dynamics,” said Christian H. Kaelin, chair of Henley & Partners, in a statement. “Nations that embrace openness and cooperation are surging ahead, while those resting on past privilege are being left behind.”

The U.K. passport is also now lower than it’s ever been on the index, falling from sixth to eighth place. The United Kingdom also once held the top spot in 2015.

The United States’ openness to other passports

While those with an American passport can visit 180 place visa-free, the U.S. only allows 46 nationalities to enter without a visa. This places the U.S. in 77th place on the Henley Openness Index.

The openness index measures how open countries are to foreign visitors.

The U.S. has one of the widest gaps in the world between its visa-free access and its openness.

There are 11 countries tied for first place in the openness index: Burundi, Cape Verde, Comoro Islands, Djibouti, Kenya, Micronesia, Mozambique, Rwanda, Samoa, Timor-Leste and Tuvalu. All of these countries allow citizens from 198 countries and territories to visit visa-free.

The most powerful passports in the world

Here are all of the countries that ranked ahead of the U.S. in Henley’s latest list:

1. Singapore — 193 destinations
2. South Korea — 190
3. Japan — 189
4. Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Spain, Switzerland — 188
5. Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Ireland, Netherlands — 187
6. Greece, Hungary, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Sweden — 186
7. Australia, Czech Republic, Malta, Poland — 185
8. Croatia, Estonia, Slovakia, Slovenia, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom — 184
9. Canada — 183
10. Latvia, Liechtenstein — 182
11. Iceland, Lithuania — 181
12. U.S., Malaysia — 180