India’s passport drops to 85th position on Henley Passport Index, offering visa-free access to 57 countries | Representative image
Mumbai: Indian passport slipped down five positions on the list of world’s strongest passport as it ranked 85th among 227 destinations according to Henley Passport Index. From visa-free access to 62 countries in 2024, Indian passport holders now have access to only 57 countries without a visa.
Henley Passport Index is considered as the standard passport index across the world which is based on exclusive data from the International Air Transport Authority (IATA). The index, which was started 19 years ago, includes 199 different passports and 227 different travel destinations.
According to the latest passport index released by Henley on Thursday, India has slipped down five ranks from its rank of 80 last year. Currently, Indian passport is the 85th strongest passport in the world with access to 57 countries without a need of visa. In 2024, India and Uzbekistan shared the rank with visa-free access to 62 countries. While Uzbekistan held its position, Indian passport fell down five places in the latest index.
Henley’s latex passport index shows that India shares the rank with Equatorial Guinea and Niger, which also have visa-free access to 57 countries. While six countries shared the top spot last year, Singapore and Japan broke away to secure gold and silver respectively. Singapore reclaimed its crown as the most powerful passport in the world with visa-free access to 195 destinations, leaving Japan in the runner-up spot with a score of 193.
India’s neighbouring countries also slipped down multiple positions this year except for China which climbed two positions to rank on the 60th spot and Sri lanka which maintained its spot on 96. Bhutan, Myanmar and Pakistan slipped down two positions each to the 90th 94th and 103rd ranks respectively. On the other hand, Bangladesh and Nepal slipped down three spots each on 100th and 101st spot respectively.
The United States has come out as the second-biggest faller between 2015 and 2025 after Venezuela, plummeting seven places from 2nd to its current 9th position. The British passport, which was top of the index in 2015, now sits in 5th place. In contrast, China has been the the biggest climber 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.
On the other end of the mobility spectrum, Afghanistan remained firmly entrenched at the bottom of the Henley Passport Index, having lost visa-free access to a further two destinations over the past year. This created 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.
Dr. Christian H. Kaelin, chairman of Henley & Partners and the inventor of the passport index concept, said “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.”
