Thinking about going overseas? Well, you can feel confident in your travels, because Australia has one of the most powerful passports in the world. The Henley Passport Index, the original and authoritative ranking of the world’s passports, has released their updated rankings for 2026. It assesses the number of destinations that can be accessed without a prior visa. It takes data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA), and includes 199 different passports to 227 travel destinations.
Despite a price hike implemented last year — with an adult passport for 10 years going from $398 to $412 — we have remained steady in the rankings, in 7th place. Unfortunately, while in 2025 that meant we had access to 185 destinations visa-free, that number has now dropped to 183 destinations. And, with the EU introducing ETIAS this year, that number may drop again next year. Joining us in 7th place are our friends from Canada, Czechia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Latvia, Slovakia, and Slovenia.
Japan managed to hold on to its second place, having lost the top spot, still tied with South Korea and, as of now, with United Arab Emirates. The coveted number one spot goes to Singapore, which has visa-free access to 192 destinations. Our neighbour New Zealand dropped one spot to join us at number 7, while the UK — which had shared a spot with us — has gone up one, sharing 6th place with Poland and Hungary.
The top 10 countries are:
- Singapore (192)
- Japan, South Korea, United Arab Emirates (188)
- Sweden (187)
- Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Spain (186)
- Austria, Greece, Malta, Portugal, Switzerland (185)
- Hungary, Poland, United Kingdom (184)
- Australia, Canada, Czechia, Latvia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Slovakia, Slovenia (183)
- Crotia, Estonia (182)
- Liechtenstein, Lithuania (181)
- Iceland, United States (180)
The least powerful passports were Iraq, with access to 28 places, Syria, with access to 25 places, and Afghanistan, in the 104th spot, and access to only 22 destinations.
For the full list, click here.
