You heard that right - even with how strong our passport is, we don't actually hold the strongest passport in the world.
According to the Henley Passport Index, Malaysia is ranked to have the 6th strongest passport in 2026 with access to 183 visa-free destinations, the only Asian country to hold this rank and tied with Hungary, Poland & the UK.
While countries are ranked based on the highest number of visa-free destinations, Malaysia is not ultimately the 6th strongest, as there are multiple countries that tied for 2nd, 4th & 5th places. However, this puts us in the Top 25 of countries with the stronger passports worldwide.
This 6th ranking is the highest, and strongest that Malaysia has had in the past 20 years - the last highest ranking we had was in 2014 with 8th place, which then hovered around 10-14th places in the subsequent 11 years.
This strong performance in 2026 can likely be attributed to our relatively stable politics and balanced foreign policy, as a result of our government's effort to strengthen diplomatic relationships over the last few years.
Now, it's time to reveal the country that topped the list with the strongest passport in the world - and it's none other than our friendly neighbour Singapore, with access to 192 visa-free destinations attributed to strategic foreign relations, economic stability, and diplomatic clout.
Singapore citizens have visa-free access to 5 additional locations compared to #2 ranking holders - Japan, South Korea and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), who each have access to 187 destinations. #3 goes to Sweden with 186 locations.
Multiple countries are tied for #4 & #5 rankings:
#4 (185 visa-free destinations): Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Spain & Switzerland
#5 (184 visa-free destinations): Austria, Greece, Malta, Portugal
On the other hand, the country with the weakest passport is Afghanistan, ranking #101 with access to only 23 visa-free destinations. That's only 12.5% of Malaysia's access, with a difference of 160 destinations!
Not too far away is Syria at #100 with 26 visa-free destinations, and Iraq at #99 with 29 destinations respectively.
Our Malaysian passport's power is something that we often take for granted, which grants us the freedom to travel quite freely across the globe for leisure - on the other hand, there are citizens from countries that have never been able to travel easily due to the differed strengths of their passports. As such, it's so important that we continue to appreciate the gift of freedom we currently have, the effort that our government puts in to maintain stable diplomatic relations, and continue to uphold good behaviours whenever we're on foreign land!
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C Chai (crystal.chaijeecheng@gmail.com) is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
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