Bad news for passport bros, for the first time in two decades, the US passport has officially dropped out of the world’s top 10 most powerful passports. The latest Henley Passport Index (the ranking that measures how many countries you can visit without needing a visa) now has the US passport sitting at the 12th spot, sharing the position with Malaysia.
If you’re wondering just how much of a slide this is, you don’t have to look back too far. Just last year, the US was comfortably in seventh place, before slipping down to 10th in July. Now we’re outside the top tier completely. To be fair, if you look at the last decade, the drop is even more dramatic, as the US was actually at the top of the list ten years ago.
The list is currently dominated by Asian countries; for example, Singapore leads the pack with visa-free access to a mind-blowing 193 destinations, followed by South Korea with 190, and Japan with 189, per The Guardian. It feels like night and day when you compare their mobility to ours right now.
The US is losing everywhere you look
This declining strength isn’t just a random number shuffle; it actually signals a fundamental shift in how global power works, according to the experts. Christian H Kaelin, the chair of Henley & Partners, which compiles these rankings, put it pretty clearly in a press release. He explained that the drop “is more than just a reshuffle in rankings – it signals a fundamental shift in global mobility and soft power dynamics.”
He went on to say that “Nations that embrace openness and cooperation are surging ahead, while those resting on past privilege are being left behind.” This is a powerful statement, and it really makes you think about the direction the US is heading when it comes to international relations. It’s not like the US has been friendly to those who came here with a passport.
— World of Statistics (@stats_feed) October 15, 2025
US falls out of world’s 10 most powerful passports list for first time in 20 years.
According to the latest Henley Passport Index, a ranking that measures how many countries a traveler can visit without needing a visa, the US passport now ranks 12th globally, sharing the…
The Henley & Partners team points out a huge imbalance; while US passport holders can currently access 180 destinations visa-free, the US itself allows only 46 other nationalities to enter its borders without a visa. When you look at those numbers, you can understand why other countries are starting to question why they should give Americans a free pass when the US is limiting entry so much.
We’re already seeing some real-world examples of this reciprocity problem hurting US travelers. Back in April, for instance, Brazil ended visa-free entry for Americans, Canadians, and Australians, specifically citing a lack of reciprocity as the reason. It’s not just a one-off thing, either. We’ve also seen countries like China and Vietnam expand their visa waiver programs, but they’ve made a point of excluding the US from those newly expanded lists of eligible countries. So, if you were hoping to pop into Beijing or Hanoi on a whim, you might want to start planning for that visa application now.
This whole situation is making a lot of Americans rethink their options, and I can’t blame them one bit. The dramatic fall in the ranking is already fueling a growing desire for dual citizenship, which, the firm suggests, signals that simply having standalone US citizenship may not carry the superpower status it once did.
Peter J Spiro, a professor of law at Temple University Law School, thinks this is just the beginning. He believes that “In coming years, more Americans will be acquiring additional citizenships in whatever way they can” and that “Multiple citizenship is being normalized in American society.” The idea is becoming so popular that, as the Guardian claims one social media poster recently put it, “dual citizenship is the new American dream.”
