Overview
- Henley & Partners released its 20th‑anniversary Passport Index on July 21, 2026, reporting the average passport now grants visa‑free access to 108 destinations, Singapore remains No. 1 with access to 192, the UAE recorded the largest 20‑year gain with 153 added destinations, the United States is joint 10th with access to 180, and Afghanistan ranks last with 22, creating a record 170‑destination gap.
- Henley’s analysis finds a strong positive link between passport strength and national peacefulness (Spearman ρ = 0.65), while the Institute for Economics & Peace’s Global Peace Index reports a twelfth straight annual decline in peacefulness and the highest number of state‑based conflicts since World War II.
- Some countries buck the peace‑power pattern: the United States and Israel keep relatively strong passports despite low GPI rankings, a result Henley attributes to long‑run diplomatic capital, economic ties and international confidence in their institutions and travel documents.
- Passport power is driven by bilateral visa‑waiver diplomacy, regional arrangements such as Schengen, reciprocity and administrative trust in travel documents, and those forces have widened inequality in mobility and increased demand among wealthy citizens for second residencies or citizenships.
- The trends matter for ordinary travelers and policy: growing mobility gaps shape who can work, study or seek refuge abroad, they change travel and immigration markets, and they put diplomatic leverage and visa policy at the center of future debates over fairness and global cooperation.