This year marks two decades since the launch of the Henley Passport Index, and its 20th anniversary edition lays bare a striking global paradox: while cross-border travel freedom has expanded dramatically across the past 20 years, worsening geopolitical conflict has created a wider gap than ever between the world’s most and least mobile citizens. When the index first launched in 2006, the average passport granted visa-free access to just 58 global destinations. Today, that number has nearly doubled to 108, a statistic that underscores how profoundly global mobility has grown over two decades.
This expansion of travel freedom comes against a sharply contrasting backdrop from the also 20th anniversary Global Peace Index, released by the Institute for Economics & Peace. This year’s edition of the peace index paints the grimmest picture of global stability in its history. The world currently hosts more state-based conflicts than at any point since World War II, marking the 12th consecutive year that global peacefulness has declined. Out of the 163 nations measured, 119 are less peaceful today than they were in 2008, and 103 countries have participated in an external conflict over the past five years — almost twice the number recorded when the index launched.
Despite this increasingly fractured geopolitical landscape, data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA) confirms that international mobility continues to evolve and expand. At the top of the 2026 Henley Passport Index, Singapore retains its title as the world’s most powerful passport, offering its citizens visa-free or visa-on-arrival access to 192 global destinations. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) claims second place, tied with Japan and South Korea, with access to 188 destinations.
Notable shifts among top-ranked nations include the United Kingdom, which climbed one spot to 6th place so far this year after securing new visa-free access agreements for its citizens with China and Malawi. Canada also rose one position to 7th following similar reciprocal visa-waiver gains. The United States, by contrast, remains stuck in 10th place, and is one of the only high-ranked passports whose citizens still require a pre-travel visa to enter China.
The UAE’s dramatic rise through the rankings over 20 years stands out as one of the index’s most remarkable success stories. It has recorded the largest improvement of any nation in the index’s 20-year history, adding 153 visa-free destinations and climbing from the middle of the rankings to the top tier. This transformation serves as a vivid case study of how consistent diplomatic outreach and intentional international cooperation can reshape a nation’s global mobility standing.
Dr. Christian H. Kaelin, Chairman of Henley & Partners and creator of the Henley Passport Index, notes that the two 20-year datasets reveal a fundamental shift in how global power is expressed. “Twenty years of data show that passport power is one of the clearest expressions of a country’s geopolitical capital. It reflects far more than peace or prosperity alone. The world’s strongest passports belong to nations that other countries want as partners — for trade, investment, security, or cooperation. Mobility is ultimately a measure of the value other countries place on their relationship with you,” Kaelin explained.
Across the board, global travel freedom has grown significantly over two decades. In 2006, the world’s strongest passports (held by the U.S., Denmark, and Finland) granted access to 130 visa-free destinations. Today, Singapore’s top ranking delivers access to 192 destinations. But this broad expansion has come with a sharp widening of the gap between the world’s most and least mobile citizens. In 2006, Afghanistan sat at the bottom of the index with just 12 visa-free destinations, creating an 118-destination gap between top and bottom. Today, Afghanistan remains last with only 22 destinations, pushing the gap to a record 170 destinations. Remarkably, Bolivia is the only nation in the world to have recorded a net loss of visa-free access over 20 years, dropping six destinations; every other ranking has improved.
The makeup of the world’s top mobility elite has shifted dramatically since 2006, when the U.S. held first place and the U.K. ranked third. Two decades later, the U.S. is 10th and the U.K. is 6th, marking a clear long-term reallocation of mobility power away from traditional transatlantic leaders. Asian nations have surged to the top of the rankings: Singapore, which ranked 8th in 2006, now leads the index, while Japan and South Korea join the UAE in second place. Europe still maintains a strong presence in the upper rankings, but the balance of power has shifted there as well. Today, the top 10 tier of mobility includes more nations with narrower gaps in access than 20 years ago, reflecting a broader trend: while passport power has expanded globally, holding a top relative position has become far more competitive.
New comparative analysis of 20 years of data from the Henley Passport Index (HPI) and the Global Peace Index (GPI) finds a strong positive correlation between national peacefulness and passport power (Spearman rank correlation ρ = 0.65, p < 0.001). The pattern holds at both ends of the rankings: most of the world’s most peaceful nations also hold the world’s strongest passports. Singapore ranks 8th on the GPI and 1st on the HPI, while Japan, Switzerland, Ireland, Austria, Portugal, Finland, Denmark, New Zealand, Canada, Czechia, and Malaysia all rank among global leaders on both indexes. At the opposite end, Afghanistan, Syria, and Yemen rank among the world’s least peaceful nations and hold the world’s weakest passports, demonstrating how conflict, instability, and state fragility erode international mobility.
The most revealing insights come from the exceptions to this trend, however. Multiple nations hold passports that far outperform their GPI rankings would predict, including Israel (159th on GPI, 18th on HPI), the United States (134th on GPI, 10th on HPI), France (99th on GPI, 4th on HPI), Ukraine (160th on GPI, 31st on HPI), the UAE (73rd on GPI, 2nd on HPI), South Korea (57th on GPI, 2nd on HPI), Brazil (124th on GPI, 16th on HPI), Mexico (139th on GPI, 22nd on HPI), and Russia (163rd on GPI, 47th on HPI). Their positions confirm that while peace provides a foundational boost to mobility, diplomacy, geopolitical influence, economic strength, and regional integration can deliver even greater gains.
The U.S. and Israel are the clearest statistical outliers. Though the U.S. falls in the bottom fifth of GPI rankings and Israel is among the five least peaceful nations in the world, both maintain exceptionally powerful passports. Their high rankings reflect decades of accumulated diplomatic capital, broad geopolitical influence, major economic importance, and international confidence in the integrity of their travel documents. Even amid ongoing regional tensions in the Middle East, their mobility strength makes clear that passport power is shaped by far more than just national peacefulness.
France stands out as the primary European outlier. Its 99th place GPI ranking accounts for metrics including militarization and external conflict alongside domestic security, yet it shares 4th place on the HPI with 10 other European nations that all rank within the top 35 for peacefulness. France’s outperforming passport highlights the mobility dividend created by Schengen Area membership, European integration, and extensive global diplomatic and economic ties.
Ukraine offers another distinct exception. Though it ranks 160th on the GPI due to its ongoing full-scale conflict with Russia, it holds 31st place on the HPI. Its strong passport position reflects the durability of long-standing mobility agreements and its deepening integration with the European Union, proving that international mobility access can persist even amid prolonged armed conflict.
For many Global South nations, while peace creates the conditions for stronger passport power, mobility remains limited by weaker diplomatic leverage, fewer reciprocal visa-waiver agreements, and a global visa system that structurally favors wealthier, more influential states. As Professor Mehari Taddele Maru of the European University Institute and Johns Hopkins University argues in recent research published by Henley & Partners on EU visa reforms, modern visa policies often reinforce structural bias against African travelers, raising critical questions about fairness and equity in global mobility.
The 20th anniversary findings set the stage for Henley & Partners’ upcoming Safe Haven Forum, a unique global convening that brings together leading geopolitical analysts, investors, heads of government, policymakers, and wealth advisors to explore how nations and families can build resilience through diversified residence, citizenship, and investment attraction strategies in an increasingly fragmented world.
Internal client data from Henley & Partners shows that geopolitical uncertainty is increasingly shaping decision-making among high-net-worth families. In the first six months of 2026, the firm received applications from 86 nationalities across 47 residence and citizenship by investment programs, with more than 28% of applicants already residing outside their country of nationality. Americans remain the largest source market for the firm, and enquiries from UAE-based residents have risen 41% since conflict escalated in the Gulf in February, reflecting growing demand for contingency planning.
Dr. Kaelin noted that the findings point to a broader shift in how both nations and families approach mobility. “For twenty years, we have measured how nations build freedom of movement for their citizens. Today, we are witnessing the same shift in how families think about their future. They recognize that true wealth is no longer defined solely by financial capital, but by the freedom to choose where they and future generations can live, work, study, invest, and belong. In an increasingly uncertain world, the greatest privilege is no longer simply the freedom to travel — it is the freedom to choose, to have access rights,” he said.
