KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia continues to hold its position as having the world’s seventh most powerful passport in the Henley Passport Index 2026, offering visa-free or visa-on-arrival access to 183 destinations worldwide.
The latest index placed Malaysia alongside Australia, Canada, Czechia, Latvia, New Zealand, Slovakia and Slovenia in seventh place.
Among Southeast Asian nations, Malaysia remained second only to Singapore, whose passport retained the top spot globally with access to 192 destinations without requiring a prior visa.
Japan, South Korea and the United Arab Emirates shared second place in the global rankings, followed by Sweden in third.
Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway and Spain jointly occupied fourth place, while Austria, Greece, Malta, Portugal and Switzerland were ranked fifth.
Hungary, Poland and the United Kingdom shared sixth place, with Croatia and Estonia in eighth, followed by Liechtenstein and Lithuania in ninth.
Malaysia also ranked above several developed economies, including the United States, which was placed 10th alongside Iceland, as well as Hong Kong, which ranked 14th.
In Southeast Asia, Thailand was ranked 63rd with visa-free or visa-on-arrival access to 77 destinations, followed by Indonesia in 68th (70 destinations), the Philippines in 72nd (65), Vietnam in 87th, Cambodia in 88th, Laos in 89th and Myanmar in 91st.
The Henley Passport Index measures the strength of passports based on the number of destinations their holders can enter without obtaining a visa in advance.
The 2026 rankings assessed 199 passports against 227 travel destinations using data provided by the International Air Transport Association (IATA).
Henley & Partners updates the index regularly to reflect changes in global travel access.
