US Passport Slips to No. 9 in Global Ranking: Here’s the Scoop!

Henley Global just rolled out their 2025 Passport Index, ranking passports from all over the world. Guess what? The US passport has dropped to ninth place, down from seventh last year. Some smart folks think this drop is because of the current politics in the US.

Annie Pforzheimer, an expert at a Washington think tank called The Center for Strategic and International Studies, chatted with Forbes about it. She said, “Long before anyone talked about Trump coming back, America was already starting to keep to itself more and more.”

Dr. Tim Klatte, who works with Grant Thornton in China and teaches at Shanghai New York University, also had something to say. He thinks Trump’s big plans for foreign policies and his past trade wars are making waves around the world.

“These trade fights aren’t just two countries bickering—it’s changing the whole global game. It’s making things cost more and everyone’s worried about what will happen next,” Klatte explained to Henley and Partners.

Here’s a fun fact

American passport holders can go to 186 places without a visa, but the US only lets in folks from 46 countries without one. This makes the US rank 84th on the Henley Openness Index.

Other countries like France, Germany, Italy, and Spain also dropped down the list. But, some European countries like Austria, Denmark, and a few others are doing just fine, holding onto fourth place.

Meanwhile, China and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are moving up. The UAE is now 10th, letting its people travel to 185 places easily. China has moved up a lot too, from 94th place in 2015 to 60th now.

And who’s at the very top? Singapore! If you have a Singaporean passport, you can visit 195 places without needing a visa. So, as things change in politics, they also change in the passport world. Who can go where easily tells us a lot about what’s going on between countries.