New Zealand passports tie for the fifth most powerful for visa-free access, up one place from last year.
Kiwis have visa-free access to 187 destinations, ahead of Australia with 185 destinations, but lagging Singapore which tops the list with 193. The latest annual Henley Passport Index shows Asian countries continue to lead the global mobility race, with Japan and South Korea sharing second place, each with access to 190 destinations visa-free. Seven EU passports share third place—Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, and Spain, all with access to 189 destinations. Another seven-nation European group, with visa-free entry to 188 destinations, are joint fourth— Austria, Belgium, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, and Sweden—while New Zealand, the only nation to challenge the regional dominance, ties in fifth with Greece and Switzerland.
. . . The Index
The list is powered by exclusive Timatic data from the International Air Transport Association and ranks all the world’s passports based on the number of destinations their holders can enter without a prior visa. Afghanistan remains at the bottom of the ranking, with its citizens able to access just 25 destinations without a prior visa.
. . . Biggest Changes
Britain and the US have each dropped a place in the global passport rankings since Jan, continuing a long-term downward trend. Once the most powerful passports in the world, the UK in 2015 and the US in 2014, they now rank 6th and 10th, respectively. The UK currently has visa-free access to 186 destinations, while the US trails with 182. Notably, the increasingly inward-looking US is now on the brink of exiting the Top 10 altogether for the first time in the index’s 20-year history.
. . . Mobility Earned
Christian Kaelin, inventor of the passport index, says the 2025 list reveals an increasingly competitive landscape in global mobility. “The consolidation we’re seeing at the top underscores that access is earned—and must be maintained—through active and strategic diplomacy. Nations that proactively negotiate visa waivers and nurture reciprocal agreements continue to rise, while the opposite applies to those that are less engaged in such efforts.”
