Even as outbound travel from India continues to grow rapidly and a growing number of destinations try to woo Indian tourists, obtaining a visa for travel has become harder for Indian travelers, the global ranking of Indian passport dropped five spots to 85th in Henley Passport Index 2025 even as Singapore reclaimed the top spot and Japan takes the second position.
According to a press statement, as per the Henley Passport Index 2025, India has slipped from 80th rank in 2024 to 85th in 2025. An Indian national can travel to 57 visa-free destinations around the world, it adds.
The index is considered the standard reference tool for global citizens and sovereign states when assessing where a passport ranks on the global mobility spectrum, the Henley & Partners said. As per the index for 2025, India stands at 85th while the ranking of Pakistan and Bangladesh stood at 103rd (101st in 2024) and 100th (97th in 2024), respectively. According to a data chart available on the firm's website, for the range of years from 2006-2025, India's rank was the lowest at 90th in 2021, while its best score was in 2006 when the country was ranked 71st.According to the passport index, the ranking of Pakistan and Bangladesh stood at 103rd (101st in 2024) and 100th (97th in 2024), respectively.
Singapore passport holders can currently travel visa-free to a total of 195 out of 227 destinations around the globe, giving its citizens more unrestricted travel access than anywhere else in the world. Close behind, runner-up Japan climbed from third to second place in the 2025 ranking. The Japanese passport unlocks visa-free access to 193 nations, a total that now includes China for the first time since Covid-19.
Six countries - Finland, France, Germany, Italy, South Korea, and Spain - are tied for third place with visa-free access to 192 destinations globally. In fourth place, Austria, Denmark, Ireland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden are also tied, with their citizens enjoying travel to 191 destinations without needing a visa.
The United Arab Emirates, in tenth place, remains the only Arab nation to have secured a spot in the top 10 ranking, meaning its passport holders can travel visa-free to 185 destinations worldwide. UAE passport holders have seen a major improvement in global mobility over the past decade, and have gained access to an additional 72 destinations since 2015. Meanwhile, the US passport, dropping from second place in 2015 to its current ranking in ninth place, has become less powerful over the past decade. The British passport has also diminished in power in recent years, and is now ranked in fifth place. It has been over a decade since the UK and the US jointly held first place on the index in 2014.
In 2025, Pakistan and Yemen shared the 103rd position on the Henley Passport Index, both with visa-free access to only 33 countries. They are followed by Iraq (31 countries), Syria and (27 countries) and Afghanistan (26 countries).
Several EU member states, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain, drop two places in the ranking to 3rd position, and are joined by Finland and South Korea, which each lost a place over the past 12 months and now have access to 192 destinations with no prior visa required.
The statement adds that a seven-nation EU cohort, all with visa-free access to 191 destinations, Austria, Denmark, Ireland, Luxembourg,
Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden, share 4th place, while five countries, Belgium, New Zealand, Portugal, Switzerland, and the UK, come in 5th with 190 visa-free destinations. The statement adds that on the other end of the mobility spectrum, Afghanistan, unsurprisingly, remains firmly entrenched at the bottom of the Henley Passport Index, having lost visa-free access to a further two destinations over the past year, creating the largest mobility gap in the index's 19-year history, with Singaporeans able to travel to 169 more destinations visa-free than Afghan passport holders.
"The very notion of citizenship and its birthright lottery needs a fundamental rethink as temperatures rise, natural disasters become more frequent and severe, displacing communities and rendering their environments uninhabitable. Simultaneously, political instability and armed conflicts in various regions force countless people to flee their homes in search of safety and refuge. The need to introduce Free Global Cities to harness the untapped potential of displaced people and other migrants, transforming them from victims of circumstance into architects of their own futures has never been more pressing or apparent," says Christian H Kaelin, Chairman, Henley & Partners and the inventor of the passport index concept.
The statement adds that the rest of the index's Top 10 is largely dominated by European countries, except for Australia, which is 6th place with 189 destinations, Canada, 7th place with 188 destinations, the US 9th place with 186 destinations and the UAE, the first and only Arab state to ever make it into the upper echelons of the rankings. The UAE is one of the biggest climbers on the index over the past decade, having secured access to an additional 72 destinations since 2015, enabling it to climb 32 places to 10th spot with visa-free access to 185 destinations worldwide.
According to the statement, only 22 of the world's 199 passports have fallen down the Henley Passport Index ranking over the past decade.
Surprisingly, the United States is the second-biggest faller between 2015 and 2025 after Venezuela, plummeting seven places from 2nd to its current 9th position. Vanuatu is the third-biggest faller, losing six places from 48th to 54th position, followed by the British passport, which was top of the index in 2015 but now sits in 5th place.
Completing the Top 5 losers list is Canada, which dropped three ranks over the past decade from 4th to its current 7th place.
In contrast, China is among the biggest climbers over the past decade, ascending from 94th place in 2015 to 60th in 2025, with its visa-free score increasing by 40 destinations in that time. And in terms of its openness to other nations, China has also risen on the Henley Openness Index, which ranks all 199 countries and territories worldwide according to the number of nationalities they permit entry to without a prior visa.
China granted visa-free access to a further 29 countries over the past year alone, and now sits in 80th position, granting visa-free entry to a total of 58 nations as the new year commences, compared to its rival America, which ranks 84th and allows just 46 other countries access without a prior visa.
