The US passport ranking 2026 stands at tenth place on the Henley & Partners Passport Index, with American travellers holding visa-free or visa-on-arrival access to 180 destinations, a figure that, while substantial, now trails 36 other countries. Two decades ago the US shared first position; today it sits alongside Iceland at the foot of the top ten.
The index, which evaluates 199 passports against access to 227 travel destinations, is updated monthly using data from the International Air Transport Association. It measures visa-free and visa-on-arrival access rather than any qualitative assessment of the document itself.
Where the US Passport Ranking 2026 Sits in the Global Table
Singapore leads the index, with its passport providing access to 192 destinations. Japan, South Korea, and the United Arab Emirates are jointly placed second with access to 188 destinations. A cluster of European countries occupies positions three through seven, with the United Kingdom at sixth place on 184 destinations and Australia, Canada, and Malaysia among seven nations sharing seventh on 183.
The United States and Iceland share tenth place on 180 destinations. Because multiple countries occupy each band, the US effectively trails 36 nations in total visa-free reach, despite the 10th-place label.
Dominic Volek, Group Head of Private Clients at Henley & Partners, told TheTravel that the story is primarily one of others advancing rather than the US retreating. ‘The story is less about the U.S. losing ground and more about the rest of the world catching up,’ Volek said. ‘The U.S. passport remains one of the world’s strongest, providing visa-free or visa-on-arrival access to 180 destinations today, up from around 130 when the Henley Passport Index was first published in 2006.’ He added that many other countries had expanded their travel freedom more rapidly through ‘sustained diplomacy, reciprocal visa-waiver agreements, and stronger international partnerships.’
Henley & Partners also noted that passport strength is shaped by a combination of diplomacy, economic influence, international trust, and peacefulness, rather than any single policy decision.
The UAE’s Rise and the Index’s Widening Mobility Gap
The United Arab Emirates illustrates how quickly passport strength can shift. According to Henley & Partners’ 20th-anniversary analysis of the index, the UAE added 153 visa-free destinations over two decades (the largest gain recorded in the index’s history) climbing from 62nd place in 2006 to joint second globally in 2026. That trajectory stands in sharp contrast to the US, which has moved from first to tenth over the same period.
At the other end of the table, the mobility gap between the strongest and weakest passports has grown considerably. MonkeyTravel puts the gap between Singapore’s 195-destination reach and Afghanistan’s 27 destinations at 168, the widest divergence recorded in the index’s 20-year history. The practical consequence is that passport strength increasingly determines not just holiday convenience but access to opportunity for hundreds of millions of people worldwide.
Henley & Partners’ anniversary data also highlights an intriguing anomaly for the US specifically: American passport holders rank 67 places higher on the passport index (10th) than the US’s position on the Global Peace Index (134th) would predict. That gap points to the weight that economic influence and diplomatic relationships carry in determining visa-free access, independent of other factors the index does not directly measure.
What the Slip Means for Trade and Travellers
For airlines, travel management companies, and agents handling US outbound traffic, the practical effect is limited in the near term. American travellers retain visa-free or visa-on-arrival access to the vast majority of popular leisure and business destinations, and the movement from ninth to tenth place between 2025 and 2026 adds no new visa requirements.
The structural issue, as Volek set out, is reciprocity. The US grants visa-free entry to relatively few nationalities compared with many of its top-ranked peers. That imbalance can slow the negotiation of new reciprocal waiver agreements, constraining future index gains even as other nations continue to expand their own bilateral networks.
For the trade, the rankings serve as a useful prompt to audit pre-trip entry-requirement processes. Visa policies across all markets can change at short notice, and the index’s monthly update cycle means the position at time of booking may not reflect conditions at departure. The Henley & Partners 20th-anniversary analysis, which charts every major shift since 2006, provides the clearest long-run picture of how quickly the passport landscape can move.
