By: Bernadette Carreon

The Palau passport ranking rose from 48 to 42 in the latest global powerful passports ranking, according to the 2025 Henley Passport Index (HPI), with Palauan passport holders able to travel visa-free to 123 destinations.

The HPI published its update this month, listing 199 passports and a total of 227 travel destinations.

The HPI has combined its data and World Bank GDP data to come up with the ranking.

Palau has moved up from its 48th place ranking in 2024 to 42nd place in 2025. 

In the Pacific, the Solomon Islands passport is ranked 36th with Samoa and Tonga at 39th place, while the Marshall Islands is at 40th place,  Tuvalu at 41st place and Palau is ranked the same at 42 with Kiribati and FSM.

Vanuatu is ranked 54th, Fiji is ranked 55th, Nauru is ranked 57th, and Papua New Guinea is the least powerful passport among the Pacific nations, ranked 58th.

In the latest ranking, Singapore passports top the list, followed by Japanese and South Korean passports in second place.

The US passport ranking has fallen from 7th to 10th this time

 Afghanistan’s passport is the least powerful in the world, ranking 106th and placing it at the bottom of the list, making it the most restricted globally.