The world’s most powerful passports of 2025 have been announced, and for the fourth year in a row, the same country snatches the top spot as the UK drops places
The world’s most powerful passports for 2024 have been revealed and for the fourth year in a row, the same country has come out on top.
The global ranking scoreboard reveals the number of countries citizens around the world can enter visa-free.
Securing the top spot is the United Arab Emirates (UAE), for the fourth year in a row. Any individual living in the UAE, has access to more than 90 per cent of the world and are able to visit 133 countries without a visa and 47 countries by gaining a visa on arrival. As a result, the UAE gained a mobility score of 180.
European countries dominated the top 20, with 19 of the world’s most powerful passports belonging to countries in Europe.
Spain overtook Germany to become the second most powerful passport in the world, while Finland came in third place. Meanwhile, France (4th) emerged as the strongest passport of the G20 nations.
The UK slid down the rankings again this year, this time by 10 places to 32nd, with an equal mobility score of 174, to Singapore, Malta, Canada, Lithuania, Romania, Bulgaria and Australia.
In total, UK passport holders can visit 125 countries visa-free and 49 gaining a visa on arrival.
The USA also fell, trailing behind the UK in 38th place, where its citizens can visit 123 countries without a visa and 50 by gaining a visa on arrival.
According to MailOnline, Arton Capital, which produced the ranking, said in a statement: “With the new Trump administration incoming, it remains to be seen what steps the U.S will take to stop the downgrade of its once-great passport. Currently the weakest passport in the G7 group of nations, Trump’s incoming administration has all the motivations to make the U.S passport great again.”
Arton Capital’s website also states: “Passports of the world are sorted by their Mobility Score (MS), which includes visa-free, visa on arrival, eTA and eVisa if the country issued less than three working days. The higher the MS score, the better global mobility its passport holder enjoys.
“If the countries have the same MS their ordered by visa-free, visa on arrival, eTA they have, The more visa-free the highest position in the same MS they have. You can filter the GPPR by region, union, continent and type of passports and compare the MS for up to four passports.”
European passports were overall the best ranked and nearly all countries in the Balkans experienced growth in their mobility this year.
Kosovo also stood out this year as it gained an impressive 35 points in its mobility score, mainly due to the country joining the Schengen zone at the start of 2024.
The least powerful passport in the world was secured by Syria, which has a mobility score of 40 and requires a visa in 158 countries.
