Subtítulos (73)
0:00So, I am here in Singapore, which once again
has the world's most powerful passport in the
0:05Henley Passport Index. That means Singaporeans
can travel to more places than anybody else.
0:12But zoom out and the story shifts.
0:14On the Arton Passport Index, Singapore
drops to second place behind the UAE.
0:19And on the Nomad Passport Index,
Singapore comes in much lower at 20th.
0:25So, what's driving the gap? And what
does passport power really mean?
0:29It's less about travel and more about a
stamp of approval from other countries
0:36of your political stability,
diplomacy, and border integrity.
0:41These differences come down
to what each ranking measures.
0:45We use real data from the International
Air Transport Authority, and
0:49ultimately visa-free access is a very superficial
way to rank countries. There's much more depth
0:58that we go into on our quality of nationality
index which uh ranks not just visa-free access
1:06but human development index, peace and stability,
settlement freedom as well as economic strength.
1:14Arton tracks access too but weighs it
differently and updates in real time.
1:19And the Nomad Index takes a broader view,
weighing taxation, global perception,
1:25dual citizenship policies, and personal freedom.
1:28By those measures, countries
that dominate visa-free rankings,
1:32including Singapore and the
UAE, fall outside of the top 10.
1:36Over the past two decades,
on the Henley Passport Index,
1:40some countries have seen dramatic gains,
while others have quietly slipped.
1:45The standout climber is the United
Arab Emirates. Since 2006, the UAE
1:51has added 151 visa-free destinations
and climbed 57 places in the rankings.
1:58The UAE has shot up the rankings very
much so, and it's not by accident. It
2:03It's obviously been a very considered
move by the UAE authorities as part of
2:08their wider strategy to establish the UAE
as a hub for business within the region.
2:13And there's obviously a direct link between
passport power, the number of business
2:18meetings that that would then drive and then the
economic growth that that would come through.
2:23This shift is visible even
among long-established powers.
2:27The United States and the United Kingdom,
who once held the top spot jointly in 2014,
2:34now sit at number 10 and seven respectively.
2:37But in real terms, dozens of countries
now rank equally or above them.
2:42Over the past year alone, both recorded their
steepest annual drops in visa-free access.
2:48So Singapore, by contrast, has been consistently
near the top for years. So what's the secret?
2:55This good ranking is actually a
multitude of many fundamental factors.
3:01Many countries will allow citizens
from Singapore to go in because
3:05uh there's a certain track
record of diplomatic neutrality.
3:09And more importantly I think passport is more than
just being a visitor, it's actually a symbol of
3:15uh mobility, the movement of human the movement
of financial capital, the movement of innovation.
3:23Singapore in itself is a brand uh based on good
reputation based on consistency of the record.
3:31Singapore of course is small but maybe precisely
it is more is able to punch above its weight.
3:39The advantage of being small is many
countries don't feel threatened by you.
3:44In practice, traveling with a weak
passport often means lengthy visa weights,
3:49high rejection rates, uncertain
travel plans, and missed meetings.
3:53This is where the passport index
shifts from travel to economics.
3:57The friction really is delaying
business because a lot of the time,
4:02particularly with urgent moves,
they needed to have happened
4:04yesterday because that's what created the
urgency for the move in the first place.
4:08And what we're seeing with our index
is the gap between the haves and the
4:13have knots is getting larger. So Singapore
allows you to enter 192 countries without
4:20applying for a visa where Afghanistan is
just 24. That's the bottom of the index.
4:25So this gap has grown significantly in the 20
years that we've been publishing this data.
4:31So this helps explain a quiet trend.
Wealthy individuals often pursue second
4:36passports even when they already hold strong ones.
4:40In this age of volatility geopolitically,
4:43it is creating anxiety for individuals
around what that may mean for them,
4:48particularly if they're citizens of certain
countries. And therefore, the acquiring a
4:53second citizenship or a second passport gives them
some flexibility, gives them some optionality.
4:59It used to be more uh individuals from
developing countries that are looking to
5:05have a Plan B. But now we see strong western
countries also looking to obtain a Plan B.
5:13Case in point, the United States in 2018 would
have made up about 5% of Henley's business. This
5:20has grown an unbelievable amount in 2025, making
up 40% of our business. So even though the United
5:29States has a very strong passport, people there
are looking at the political instability and
5:37they're also wanting to ensure that they have
optionality for their families for the future.
5:42Yet even that path is narrowing. Several countries
5:46have tightened rules around citizenship
by descent and investment programs.
5:50As borders harden for trade, technology, and
capital, they're also hardening for people.
5:57Passport rankings capture that shift
in a single number. But the real story
6:02is about who still has access and
who increasingly faces friction.
6:07When we're looking at countries that
are considered to have strong passports,
6:12that's clearly extremely
intentional on their part.
6:15In other areas, we're seeing countries that did
have stronger passports are falling down that
6:20list. That's as a direct result uh in many
cases of stricter immigration policies and
6:27increasingly those changes could be far
more rapid than what we've seen before.
