For as long as I’ve been writing about travel — and for more than a decade before that — the U.S. passport has been a golden ticket, reliably ranked among the 10 most powerful in the world. This year, for the first time, it slipped.
According to the Henley Passport Index — “the original, authoritative ranking of all the world’s passports according to the number of destinations their holders can access without a prior visa” — the U.S. now sits in 12th place, tied with Malaysia. American passport holders now enjoy visa-free access to only 180 of 227 destinations.
If you’ve never given much thought to passport “power,” you’re not alone. But the difference between a top-ranked passport and an average one can mean the difference between breezing through immigration and weeks of paperwork. Singapore currently holds the crown, with its citizens able to enter 193 countries without a visa. And some people, by luck of birth, hold more than one passport, a quiet superpower that makes global movement infinitely easier.
So, how does the ranking work? Each passport earns a point for every destination its holders can enter without a visa or where they can get one upon arrival, along with electronic travel authorizations or visitor’s permits. These are considered “visa-free” because they don’t require government approval before you travel. Conversely, any destination that does require pre-departure approval — whether that’s a traditional visa or an electronic one — gets a score of zero.
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“The declining strength of the U.S. passport over the past decade is more than just a reshuffle in rankings — it signals a fundamental shift in global mobility and soft power dynamics,” Dr. Christian H. Kaelin, chairman of Henley & Partners and creator of the index, said in a statement “Nations that embrace openness and cooperation are surging ahead, while those resting on past privilege are being left behind.”
Even with the drop, Americans aren’t barred from travel, but a visa may now be part of the journey. And yet, paradoxically, demand for U.S. passports is higher than ever: Nearly 170 million active passports are now in circulation, a historic high.
The story gets more nuanced when you look at openness. On Henley’s Openness Index — which measures how freely a country allows foreign visitors without prior visas — the U.S. ranks 77th. As Forbes notes, the gap between access and openness is wider for the United States than for almost any other major power.
In short: The passport may still open many doors, but the landscape of global travel is changing — and the United States can no longer assume it leads the way.
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