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 travellers as the Indian passport drops five rankings in the global ranking of passports prepared by Henley Passport Index 2025.

The Henley Passport Index is an annual list which ranks all the world’s 199 passports according to the number of destinations they can access visa-free, and is based on exclusive Timatic data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA).

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.

Singapore reclaims leadership

Meanwhile, Singapore reclaims its crown as the most powerful passport in the world with visa-free access to 195 out of 227 destinations worldwide, leaving Japan in the runner-up spot with a score of 193, but still ahead of the rest after it regained visa-free access to neighbouring China for the first time since the Covid-19 lockdowns.

Several EU member states, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain, drop two places in the ranking to 3^rd 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 4^th place, while five countries, Belgium, New Zealand, Portugal, Switzerland, and the UK,  come in 5^th with 190 visa-free destinations.

Christian H Kaelin

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 6^th place with 189 destinations, Canada, 7^th place with 188 destinations, the US 9^th 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 10^th spot with visa-free access to 185 destinations worldwide.

US and UK among top declines

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 2^nd to its current 9^th position. Vanuatu is the third-biggest faller, losing six places from 48^th to 54^th position, followed by the British passport, which was top of the index in 2015 but now sits in 5^th place. Completing the Top 5 losers list is Canada, which dropped three ranks over the past decade from 4^th to its current 7^th place.

Annie Pforzheimer

In contrast, China is among the biggest climbers over the past decade, ascending from 94^th place in 2015 to 60^th 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 80^th position, granting visa-free entry to a total of 58 nations as the new year commences, compared to its rival America, which ranks 84^th and allows just 46 other countries access without a prior visa.

Annie Pforzheimer, Senior Associate, Center for Strategic and International Studies, a thinktank in United States, says the continued comparative decline of the US in terms of global mobility is no surprise.

“Even before the advent of a second Trump presidency, American political trends had become notably inward-looking and isolationist. Even though US economic health relies heavily on immigration, tourism, and trade, voters during the 2024 presidential campaign were fed a narrative that America can (and should) stand alone. Ultimately, if tariffs and deportations are the Trump administration’s default policy tools, not only will the US continue to decline on the mobility index on a comparative basis, but it will probably do so in absolute terms as well. This trend in tandem with China’s greater openness will likely give rise to Asia’s greater soft power dominance worldwide,” says Pforzheimer.

Tim Klatte

Tim Klatte, Partner, Grant Thornton China and an adjunct professor at Shanghai New York University and Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, agrees, and adds that the upcoming second inauguration of US President-elect Donald Trump will mark a turning point in US–China economic relations and, by extension, for the world economy.

“The Trump-era trade wars will not only be viewed as bilateral disputes, they will serve as transformative events for the global economy. Disrupting trade flows, raising costs, and sowing uncertainty will require businesses, governments, and international institutions to adapt to a new reality. This strategy raises serious concerns about the fragmentation of the global economy and the potential for increased geopolitical tensions. Trump has not been shy about his foreign policy strategies, from Canada to China, and his direct approach will continue to present doubts in the confidence of the USA’s passport power moving forward,” says Klatte.