The Henley Passport Index has released the list of the world's most powerful passports for 2025, with India slipping five spots. Earlier in 2024, India ranked 80th on the list, it has now fallen to 85th this year. It is the ranking which decides the number of destinations their holders can access without a prior visa. The index is based on exclusive data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA)-- the largest travel information database. With the latest ranking released this year, an Indian passport holder can travel visa-free to 57 countries or destinations.
Top five powerful passport
Singapore remained in the fifth position, which means visitors can travel to 195 of the 227 global destinations incorporated in the index. Japan ranked second this year. Now, Japanese citizens can fly to 193 destinations without a visa. France, Germany, Italy and Spain all drop two places to share third position. In 2024, these European Union member states stood at the top position.
Top 5 countries
| COUNTRY | RANKING |
| Singapore | 1 |
| Japan | 2 |
| France, Germany, Italy and Spain | 3 |
| Austria, Denmark, Sweden, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway | 4 |
| Belgium, New Zealand, Portugal, Switzerland, UK | 5 |
Countries which ranked last
In 2025, Pakistan and Yemen both ranked 103rd on the Henley Passport Index, each with visa-free access to only 33 countries. They are followed by Iraq (31 countries), Syria (27 countries), and Afghanistan (26 countries).
How passport index is calculated
The Henley Passport Index is the original and most authoritative passport index, with historical data spanning 19 years. The index and its contents are based on data provided by the International Air Transport Authority (IATA) and supplemented, enhanced, and updated using extensive in-house research and open-source online data. The index includes 199 different passports and 227 different travel destinations. Updated monthly, the Henley Passport Index is the most robust and reliable index of its kind.
Conditions and criteria
For each travel destination, if no visa is required for passport holders from a country or territory, then a score with value = 1 is created for that passport. A score with value = 1 is also applied if passport holders can obtain a visa on arrival, a visitor’s permit, or an electronic travel authority (ETA) when entering the destination. These visa types require no pre-departure government approval, because of the specific visa-waiver programs in place.
Where a visa is required, or where a passport holder has to obtain a government-approved electronic visa (e-Visa) before departure, a score with value = 0 is assigned. A score with value = 0 is also assigned if passport holders need pre-departure government approval for a visa on arrival, a scenario we do not consider ‘visa-free’.
The total score for each passport is equal to the number of destinations for which no visa is required (value = 1), under the conditions defined above.
