Bangladesh passport ranking marginally up

Bangladeshi passport has climbed up a spot in the latest passport rankings unveiled by Henley and Partners, one of many organisations that rank nationalities based on the visa-free travel access – something that Bangladeshis all over the world follow very closely.

According to the 2025 mid-year standings, the country’s passport now ranks 94th compared to 97th in 2024. In fact, the document has continued to steadily inch its way upwards from the 108th spot it held in 2021 – it’s lowest ranking ever. In 2022, it ranked 103rd, and 101st in 2023.

Holders of the Bangladeshi passport have visa-free access to 39 destinations – Bahamas, Barbados, Bhutan, Bolivia, British Virgin Islands, Burundi, Cambodia, Cape Verde Islands, Comoro Islands, Cook Islands, Djibouti, Dominica, Fiji, Grenada, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Jamaica, Kenya, Kiribati, Madagascar, Maldives, Micronesia, Montserrat, Mozambique, Nepal, Niue, Rwanda, Samoa, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sri Lanka, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, The Gambia, Timor-Leste, Trinidad and Tobago, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu.

Singapore remains the world’s most powerful passport, with visa-free access to 193 destinations out of 227 globally, while Japan and South Korea share the 2nd place, each granting their citizens access to 190 destinations visa-free.

Seven EU passports share 3rd place — Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, and Spain, all with access to 189 destinations. Another seven-nation European cohort, with visa-free entry to 188 destinations, are joint 4th — Austria, Belgium, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, and Sweden — while New Zealand, the only nation to challenge the regional dominance, ties in 5th place with Greece and Switzerland.
The UK and US have each dropped a place in the global passport rankings since January, continuing a long-term downward trend. Once the most powerful passports in the world — the UK in 2015 and the US in 2014 — they now rank 6th and 10th, respectively. The UK currently has visa-free access to 186 destinations, while the US trails with 182. Notably, the US is now on the brink of exiting the Top 10 altogether for the first time in the index’s 20-year history.

Meanwhile, Afghanistan remains at the bottom of the ranking, with its citizens able to access just 25 destinations without a prior visa — a staggering mobility gap of 168 destinations between the top- and bottom-ranked passports.

India has recorded the largest jump in ranking over the past six months, climbing eight places from 85th to 77th, despite only adding two destinations to its visa-free tally, now at 59. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia has made the biggest gain in visa-free access, adding four destinations since January. Its total now stands at 91, lifting the kingdom four places to 54th. Many Bangladeshis abuse the visa-free access to get into the country for employment or just flee and become illegal residents – something that is reducing the visa-free access to Bangladeshi nationals to many countries.

Looking at the past decade, with so many passports gaining power and rising on the Henley Passport Index, only 16 have fallen in rank. The biggest faller is Venezuela, which plunged 15 places from 30th to 45th, followed the US (down eight places), Vanuatu (six places down), the UK (lower by five places), and Canada (slipping four places).