Australia’s passport ranks sixth in the world as the most powerful passport despite being the most expensive.
Singapore was ranked first as the world’s most powerful passport by 2025 in the quarterly Henley Passport Index report.
The index, created by London-based global citizenship and residency advisory firm Henley & Partners, analyzed data from the International Air Transport Association.
Updated monthly, the index ranks 199 different passports and determines the global freedoms of 227 countries and territories around the world.
Holders of the Singapore Red Travel Document enjoy visa-free access to 195 of 227 destinations, making it the most desirable passport in the world.
With access to more places than any other passport in the world, the Singapore passport remains relatively cheap, costing holders just $87.
The $162 Japanese passport came in second place, with access to 193 destinations after neighboring China opened its borders for the first time since Covid-19 lockdowns.
Close behind were France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Finland and South Korea, all tied for third place with visa-free access to 192 destinations.
Despite being the most expensive passport in the world, Australia tied for sixth place with Greece, providing visa-free access to 189 destinations.
Fourth place is occupied by seven countries, including Austria, Denmark, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden.
The countries are part of the European Union’s borderless Schengen area, which provides 425 million EU citizens with visa-free access to 191 destinations.
New Zealand ranked fifth, along with Belgium, Portugal, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, with visa-free access to 190 destinations.
Australia tied with Greece in sixth position, with visa-free access to 189 places.
On January 1, the cost of the Australian passport increased from $398 to $412, making it the most expensive passport in the world.
By contrast, the cost of a passport to Greece, Australia’s sixth-place counterpart, costs less than half: 84.40 euros (or about 140.50 Australian dollars).
Australians who hold the $412 passport can travel visa-free to countries such as Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia, China, New Zealand, Samoa and Fiji.
In Europe, the passport allows visa-free access to countries such as the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Greece, Italy, Malta, Portugal, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
In Africa, the list includes countries such as Botswana, Gambia, Mauritius, South Africa and Tunisia.
While in America, Australian passport holders can visit Barbados, Brazil, Canada, Dominican Republic, Jamaica and the United States without requiring a prior visa.
In seventh place, with access to 188 destinations, were Malta, Poland and Canada, while Czechia and Hungary took eighth place, with 187.
Rounding out the top 10 were the United States and Estonia in ninth place and Latvia, Lithuania, Slovenia and the United Arab Emirates in tenth.
The United Arab Emirates saw the biggest index increase in global mobility after securing access to 72 additional destinations since 2015.
The increase saw the United Arab Emirates rise 32 places to tenth, with visa-free access to 185 destinations.
China also recorded a massive increase, jumping 34 places, from 94th in 2015 to 60th in 2025.

The Henley Passport Index ranked 199 different passports and determined the global freedoms of 227 countries and territories around the world.
Syria ranks 105th with access to only 27 locations, while Iraq ranks 104th with only 31 destinations.
Afghanistan remains entrenched at the bottom of the index, with a visa-free access score of just 26 (compared to 28 last year), creating the largest mobility gap in the index’s 19-year history, and Singaporeans They can travel to 169 more destinations. visa-free than Afghan passport holders.
Christian Kaelin, Chairman of Henley & Partners, said: “The very notion of citizenship and its lottery of birthrights needs a fundamental rethinking as temperatures rise, natural disasters become more frequent and severe, displace communities and make their environments uninhabitable.
“At the same time, political instability and armed conflicts in several regions force countless people to flee their homes in search of safety and refuge.”