When the Henley Passport Index first appeared in 2006, an Emirati traveller could visit just 35 countries without a visa. On Tuesday, as the ranking marked its 20th anniversary, that same document unlocked 188 destinations—a gain of 153 nations, the largest single leap ever recorded. The United Arab Emirates now shares second place with Japan and South Korea, behind only Singapore, whose citizens enjoy access to 192 territories. Viewed from Dubai, the ascent is the culmination of a sustained diplomatic campaign that has quietly reshaped the country’s global standing, turning a once mid-ranking passport into one of the most coveted travel documents on earth.

For the consultants at Henley & Partners, who compile the index using International Air Transport Association data, passport power has become a proxy for geopolitical capital. “The strongest passports belong to nations that other countries want as partners—for trade, investment, security or cooperation,” noted the firm’s chairman, Christian H. Kaelin. The global average of visa-free destinations has climbed to 108, up from 58 two decades ago, yet the distance between the most and least mobile has never been wider. Singaporeans can reach 192 countries without prior paperwork; Afghans, just 22. That 170-destination gap, analysts in London observe, is the starkest inequality the index has ever measured.

For travellers in Lagos, the numbers tell a more sobering story. Nigeria slipped to 90th place, its passport granting visa-free or visa-on-arrival access to 44 destinations—down from 45 a year earlier. The list, published in detail by local outlets, includes many African neighbours, a handful of Caribbean islands, and a scattering of Pacific states, but entry often hinges on cash proofs or confirmed return tickets. Lebanon, for instance, demands $2,000 in cash from Nigerian visitors on arrival. South Africa remains the continent’s strongest passport, with 101 destinations, while Ghana and Kenya hover around 70. In South Asia, Bangladesh rose three spots to 97th, tied with North Korea at 35 destinations, a modest improvement that still leaves its citizens with fewer options than the average global traveller. The Philippines, meanwhile, climbed to 72nd, a recovery from its pandemic-era low but still well short of its 2007 peak.

Latin America’s hierarchy remains anchored by Chile, whose passport opens 174 countries, placing it 14th globally. Argentina and Brazil follow with 169, while Mexico and Uruguay offer 156. The region’s lower rungs—Haiti, Cuba, the Dominican Republic—grant access to between 48 and 70 nations, a reminder that mobility in the Americas is as stratified as anywhere. Across all these rankings, the index functions less as a travel guide than as a ledger of diplomatic trust, where each visa waiver represents a bilateral bargain struck in the quiet corridors of foreign ministries.

Perhaps the most enduring image from this year’s data is not a number but a document: the Afghan passport, its pages offering entry to just 22 countries, a fraction of the destinations available to a Singaporean or an Emirati. In a world where the average traveller can now reach 108 nations without a visa, that slim booklet is a daily reminder that globalisation’s promise of frictionless movement remains, for hundreds of millions, a distant abstraction.