South Africa’s passport power has decreased yet again, according to the latest Henley Passport Index, which revealed the newest rankings of all of the world’s passports and visa-free destinations for 2025.
The Henley Passport Index is the original, authoritative ranking of all the world’s passports according to the number of destinations their passport-holders can travel to visa-free.
“With historical data spanning 19 years, the Henley Passport Index is the only one of its kind based on exclusive data from the International Air Transport Authority (IATA). The index includes 199 different passports and 227 different travel destinations.” Henley & Partners says.
SA passport power drops eight spots
And now, according to these rankings, the SA passport has dropped eight spots from 45, ranking at number 53 on the list of 199 passports.
The index also highlighted that South Africans with an SA passport can now only travel to 102 destinations without requiring a visa, after Somalia recently launched e-visas for visitors.
The top five countries
Here is the updated list of the top five most powerful passports:
| Rank | Country | Number of visa-free countries |
| 1 | Singapore | 193 |
| 2 | South Korea | 190 |
| 3 | Japan | 189 |
| 4 | Germany | 188 |
| 4 | Italy | 188 |
| 4 | Luxembourg | 188 |
| 4 | Spain | 188 |
| 4 | Switzerland | 188 |
| 5 | Austria | 187 |
| 5 | Belgium | 187 |
| 5 | Denmark | 187 |
| 5 | Finland | 187 |
| 5 | France | 187 |
| 5 | Ireland | 187 |
| 5 | Netherlands | 187 |
