The Singapore passport allows visa-free access to 192 destinations. - Photo: ST
SINGAPORE: Singaporeans continue to hold the world’s most powerful passport, with access to more than 190 destinations without having to obtain a visa before travel.
This puts it in top spot in the 2026 Henley Passport Index, giving Singaporeans visa-free or visa-on-arrival entry to 192 out of 227 destinations
Among regional peers, Malaysia also featured strongly, appearing in the top 10 of the index, which was published on Tuesday (Jan 13). The passport gives Malaysians access to 180 destinations.
Japan and South Korea were placed joint second, each offering access to 188 destinations without a visa.
A cluster of European countries followed closely behind, with Denmark, Luxembourg, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland in joint third place, each with 186 destinations.
They were trailed by an unprecedented group of 10 European countries tied for fourth.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) ranks fifth with four European countries, including Portugal.
New Zealand is in sixth place with five other European countries, including Poland, while Australia is in seventh spot with three European nations, including Britain.
Canada ranks eighth with two European countries, including Iceland. Malaysia is in ninth place, and the US is No. 10.
At the other end of the scale, Afghanistan ranks last, with its passport granting visa-free or visa-on-arrival access to just 24 destinations. The country was placed last in the January and July 2025 versions of the index too.
The Singapore passport was also in the top spot in the January and July 2025 rankings by Henley & Partners, which specialises in residence and citizenship planning.
According to the July 2025 report, Singaporeans had access to 193 destinations, and in the January 2025 edition of it, they had visa-free or visa-on-arrival access to 195 destinations.
Over the past year, Singapore lost access to Pakistan, Mauritania, Somalia and Bolivia, and gained visa-free access to Papua New Guinea.
The latest table marks the US’ return to the top 10 after briefly dropping out in late 2025. “But this recovery masks a longer-term decline for both the US and Britain, which jointly held first place in 2014,” said Henley & Partners.
“The past year saw both countries record their steepest annual losses in visa-free access,” the global consultancy said, adding that the US had shed seven destinations and Britain, eight.
The UAE stood out as the biggest long-term riser on the index. Since 2006, it has added 149 visa-free destinations and climbed 57 places to reach fifth position in 2026, a rise “driven by sustained diplomatic engagement and visa liberalisation”, said Henley & Partners.
Several countries in Eastern Europe and the Western Balkans have also made major gains over the past two decades, including Albania, Ukraine and Serbia, reflecting the impact of regional integration and closer alignment with key partners, according to Henley & Partners.
In the latest index, the gap between the world’s strongest and weakest passports has now widened to 168 destinations. This is a sharp increase from the 118-destination gap recorded in 2006 between the then top-ranking United States and lowest-ranking Afghanistan.
Henley & Partners said this reflects the scale of global mobility inequality in 2026 and described it as “a dramatic widening of the divide since 2006”.
The index also showed that passport strength does not always align with how open countries are to visitors. While US passport holders can travel visa-free to 179 destinations, the US allows only 46 nationalities to enter without a prior visa.
By contrast, China has rapidly expanded visa-free access, now allowing entry to 77 nationalities, signalling a “strategic pivot towards openness as a tool of diplomacy and economic engagement”, said Henley & Partners.
The Henley Passport Index, which ranks the world’s passports twice a year, measures how many destinations their holders can access without obtaining a visa in advance.
It is based on official travel data maintained by the International Air Transport Association and used by airlines and governments worldwide to determine entry requirements. - The Straits Times/ANN
