Positive development for South Africa’s passport ranking
South Africa’s passport has become more powerful, moving up in the latest Henley & Partners Passport Index for 2025.
The latest Henley Passport Index revealed that South Africa has further strengthened its passport power in the 2025 global rankings.
As the original and authoritative ranking, the Henley Passport Index measures the strength of passports based on the number of destinations their holders can visit without a visa.
“With historical data spanning 19 years, the Henley Passport Index is the only one of its kind based on exclusive data from the International Air Transport Authority (IATA). The index includes 199 different passports and 227 different travel destinations.” Henley & Partners says.
SA passport moves up three spots
These rankings show that the South African passport climbed three places, rising from 48th to 45th out of 199 passports.
Despite the increased power, the index highlighted that South Africans can still only travel to 103 destinations.
The top passports of the world
Here is the updated list of the top five most powerful passports:
| Rank | Country | Number of visa-free countries |
| 1 | Singapore | 193 |
| 2 | Japan | 190 |
| 2 | South Korea | 190 |
| 3 | Denmark | 189 |
| 3 | Finland | 189 |
| 3 | France | 189 |
| 3 | Germany | 189 |
| 3 | Ireland | 189 |
| 3 | Italy | 189 |
| 3 | Spain | 189 |
| 4 | Austria | 188 |
| 4 | Belgium | 188 |
| 4 | Luxembourg | 188 |
| 4 | Netherlands | 188 |
| 4 | Norway | 188 |
| 4 | Portugal | 188 |
| 4 | Sweden | 188 |
| 5 | Greece | 187 |
| 5 | New Zealand | 187 |
| 5 | Switzerland | 187 |