Singapore leads as the country with the most powerful passport in the world, closely followed by Japan and South Korea, who both share the second position, Henley Passport Index 2026 report reveals.
Since its inception two decades ago, the Henley Passport Index 2026 shows a growing divide between the world’s most and least mobile populations.
The Henley Passport Index, with exclusive access to Timatic data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA), ranks all the world’s passports according to the number of destinations their holders can access without a prior visa.
The 2026 list shows a record number of countries’ passports clustering at the top of the ranking. However, the passports of the countries at the bottom remain increasingly isolated; a development that underscores a widening global mobility gap based on nationality.
At the pinnacle of the index, Singapore retains its position as the country with world’s most powerful passport, offering access to 192 destinations visa-free.
Japan and South Korea rank joint second in 2026, both countries’ passports offering visa-free access to 188 destinations, reinforcing Asia’s long-standing leadership at the top of the global mobility rankings.
However, Denmark, Luxembourg, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland follow in third place with access to 186 destinations, ahead of an unprecedented group of 10 European countries tied for fourth place.
The United Arab Emirates ranks fifth, New Zealand sixth, Australia seventh, Canada eighth, and Malaysia nineth.
Meanwhile, at the end of the spectrum, Afghanistan once again ranks last, with its passport holders able to travel to just 24 destinations without a prior visa. The resulting 168-destination gap starkly illustrates the scale of global mobility inequality in 2026 — a dramatic widening of the divide since 2006, when the difference between the then top-ranking US passport and Afghanistan’s was only 118 destinations.
“Over the past 20 years, global mobility has expanded significantly, but the benefits have been distributed unevenly,” Dr Christian H. Kaelin, Chairman at Henley & Partners and creator of the Henley Passport Index, says in a statement seen by Peoples Gazette.
“Today, passport privilege plays a decisive role in shaping opportunity, security, and economic participation, with rising average access masking a reality in which mobility advantages are increasingly concentrated among the world’s most economically powerful and politically stable nations,” he added.
Despite the imbalance, the IATA forecasts that airlines will carry more than 5.2 billion passengers globally this year.
“A record number of people are expected to travel in 2026. The unequivocal economic and social benefits generated by this travel grow as it becomes more accessible. But while more people have the economic freedom to travel, many nationalities are seeing that a passport alone is no longer sufficient to cross borders,” IATA Director General Willie Walsh, said, adding that “As many governments look to more tightly secure their borders, technological advances such as digital ID and digital passports should not be overlooked by policymakers. Convenient travel and secure borders are possible.”
