Singapore could also be one of the smallest nations in the world—however do not underestimate the energy of its signature pink passport. In 2026, the island nation has as soon as once more clinched the title of the world’s strongest passport.
On Tuesday, January 13, Henley & Partners launched its annual 2026 Henley Passport Index, which ranks 199 of the world’s passports by the quantity of nations they permit their holders to journey to visa-free. The residency and citizenship consultancy agency used its inner analysis and official proprietary knowledge from the International Air Transport Association (IATA) to create the energy record.
This 12 months, Asian nations have dominated the prime of the ranks. Like in 2025, the Singaporean passport continues to defend its first-place document, unlocking entry to 192 visa-free locations. Japan equally retained second place—though now joined by South Korea (which was ranked third in 2025)—with the means to journey to 188 nations visa-free.
From there, 5 European passports share the title of the third-most highly effective with visa-free entry to 186 nations: Denmark, Luxembourg, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland. And European passports continued their sweep into fourth-place, with 10 nations—Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, and Norway—offering visa-free journey to 185 nations.
The United Arab Emirates broke the European block, tying in fifth-place (alongside Hungary, Portugal, Slovakia, and Slovenia) with choices to go to 184 nations and not using a visa. Over latest years, the UAE has seen a very dramatic accession on the record with the addition of 149 visa-free locations since 2006. Last 12 months, it ranked tenth.
The United States slipped down one rung to tenth place (with 179 locations) from its ninth-place rating in 2025 (with 186 locations). Across the pond, the United Kingdom ranked in seventh place with visa-free journey to 182 nations. It’s a notable decline from the 12 months prior, when the UK held onto fifth place with entry to 190 nations. Both strikes sign a dramatic tumble: The UK and the US beforehand shared the first-place title in 2014.
Global mobility tendencies for 2026
Like final 12 months, Afghanistan fell to the backside of Henley & Partners’ record with visa-free entry to solely 24 nations (down two from the 12 months prior). Between Afghanistan and Singapore, the 168 distinction in entry to visa-free nations is a stark instance of “passport privilege,” particularly throughout a 12 months that IATA predicts will see a document quantity of vacationers.
“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,” Christian H. Kaelin, the creator of the index and chairman at Henley & Partners, mentioned in the information launch.
With this, Henley & Partners has continued to see an inflow of vacationers looking for to diversify their residency and citizenship portfolios, notably from Americans, Turkish, Indian, Chinese, and British residents. Heavy on the former: American residents now make up most of its shoppers amid “ongoing political turbulence,” Peter J. Spiro, a professor at Temple University Law School, mentioned in the information launch.
Amid this pattern, a rising quantity of nations are taking word of these elevated migration patterns. In the final 12 months alone, a number of nations with passports stronger than the US (comparable to Malaysia, New Zealand, and Greece) have launched multi-year residency-by-investment golden visa alternatives.