Henley Passport Index issues 2025 ranking.
Italy has been ranked in the top three of the world’s most powerful passports, according to the latest report by the London-based consulting firm Henley & Partners.
Established in 2006, the Henley Passport Index tracks the global freedom of movement for holders of 199 passports to 227 destinations around the world, using data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA) to establish which passports hold the greatest weight when travelling abroad.
The 2025 edition of the report ranks Italy in joint third place alongside Denmark, Germany, Finland, France, Ireland and Spain, all of which offer visa-free access to 189 countries worldwide.
In first place once again is Singapore, whose passport holders can access 193 countries, while in joint second place are Japan and South Korea, with access to 190 countries.
Henley’s latest ranking shows the UK passport has moved down the list, landing in sixth place from fifth (with access to 186 destinations), while the US passport has also slipped to 10th place from ninth, with access to 182 countries.
Both of these passports were once the world’s most powerful: the UK from 2013-2015 (pre-Brexit) and the US in 2014.
Afghanistan’s passport remains bottom of the list, granting visa-free access to just 25 countries worldwide; followed by Syria with access to 27 countries; and Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia with access to 29 countries.
Earlier this year Italy’s government tightened its citizenship laws as part of a clampdown on alleged abuse of the system to claim an Italian passport by descent.
Under the amended law, applicants for an Italian passport must now have one parent or grandparent who “exclusively” holds, or held at the time of their death, Italian citizenship.
The new two-generation rules tighten the previous ius sanguinis (blood right) requirement, a law dating to 1992, which allowed anyone with an Italian ancestor who was alive after 17 March 1861 – when the Kingdom of Italy was created – to seek Italian citizenship.
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