PH ranks 79th, down 6 spots, in Henley’s Passport Index

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines is 79th in this year’s London-based Henley Passport Index, a global ranking of the passports issued by 199 countries based on their citizens’ freedom to travel to other countries without a need for a visa.

Based on the Henley Passport Index released this October, the Philippines was placed 79th since it has visa-free or visa-on-arrival access to 64 out of 227 destinations in the world. The Philippines’ ranking is six slots lower than the country’s 73rd ranking in 2024 and now shares the same spot as Sierra Leone.

For the first time in its 20-year history, the US passport has fallen out of its top 10 list altogether and ended up in 12th place, tied with Malaysia, according to Cable News Network (CNN).

“The declining strength of the US passport over the past decade is more than just a reshuffle in rankings—it signals a fundamental shift in global mobility and soft power dynamics,” CNN quoted Henley & Partners’ Christian Kaelin saying in a statement.

“Nations that embrace openness and cooperation are surging ahead, while those resting on past privilege are being left behind.”

Aside from the United States, the United Kingdom also once ruled the passport index until 2015 when China climbed from 94th place in 2015 to 64th in 2025, gaining visa-free access to 37 more destinations in that time.

All about visas

The Henley Passport Index said China granted visa-free access to Russia, new agreements with the Gulf states, South America and several European countries. The United Arab Emirates is another success story on the index, having risen 34 places in the past decade, from No. 42 to 8th place.

But CNN business editor at large Richard Quest said that there is a tremendous gap between “passport strength” and “passport desirability, for example, between the United States and China.”

“Can we make a linkage, if you will, to immigration policies of the Trump administration?” said Quest. “Yes, you probably can, at some level, say there is a direct relation between one and the other.”

“But for the average person, it’s not a jot of difference,” said Quest. “You’ve got your passport, you’ve got where you are. Learn and live with it.”

The world’s most powerful passports for 2025 are 1. Singapore (193 destinations), 2. Japan (190), South Korea (190). The third spot is shared by Denmark (189), Finland (189), France (189), Germany (189), Ireland (189), Italy (189), and Spain (189).