by Mia Taylor
Last updated: 3:35 PM ET, Wed July 1, 2026
The value of a United States passport has experienced the steepest recorded decline of any country in the history of tracking passport power.
The latest Global Citizens Solutions (GCS) ranking, which assesses 199 countries' passports based on mobility access, investment attractiveness, and quality of life, shows that a U.S. passport has fallen from ranking first in global mobility in 2021 to 12th as of 2026.
That's the steepest five-year fall of any G7 country, according to the report. The U.S. passport had ranked number one in the world last decade and has been sliding ever since, a concerning downward trend.
The primary reason for the massive decline in value of a U.S. passport is mobility, the report explains. The U.S. passport's rank has collapsed from 10th in 2021 to 41st in 2026, a startling 31-place decline.
The GPI assesses a country's passport strength across three key areas:
- Mobility access: the number of countries reachable without a prior visa
- Investment attractiveness: the tax environment, innovation, and economic competitiveness
- Quality of life: This includes healthcare, safety, climate, and social infrastructure.
The composite score developed from these three factors "captures not just where holders can travel, but the full value of the country that stands behind their document," says the report.
"What the Global Passport Index captures that conventional passport rankings cannot is the full picture of what a passport actually delivers," said Patricia Casaburi, CEO, Global Citizen Solutions.
"Mobility matters enormously and carries the highest weight (50%) amid all dimensions, but clients asking whether to pursue a second citizenship are also asking about investment environments, about healthcare, about where their children will be educated and so on. The GPI's three-pillar structure exists because those questions are inseparable," Casaburi added.
The steep decline in the U.S. passport's power can be partially attributed to Brazil's reinstatement of visa requirements for American citizens in April 2025, which it explicitly cited as a matter of reciprocity, the report explains.
"Strip out the investment and economic indicators — where the U.S. remains ranked 3rd to 4th globally — and the U.S. passport sits 41st on raw mobility, a measure that determines where an American can travel without joining a visa queue," the report explains.
The world's 10 most powerful passports
Nine of the 10 highest-ranking passports in 2026 belong to European countries. Sweden, ranked number one, meaning its citizens have the most powerful passport in the world.
The remaining countries that made it into the top 10 most powerful passports include Switzerland, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, Ireland, the United Kingdom, Norway and Singapore.
Singapore, which ranks 10th, is the sole non-European country to land among the world's most powerful passports.
The passport scores for countries that landed among the top 10 span barely three points, which analysts say reflects "the high degree of convergence among wealthy democracies on mobility access, economic competitiveness, and quality of life."
With its continued lack of universal healthcare for citizens, prolific gun violence and recent repression of the democratic process and women's rights in the country, the United States no longer ranks among the top 10.
Sweden's continued dominance
It's important to note that Sweden's sustained dominance in the ranking is not driven by mobility alone, according to the report.
In fact, Sweden's mobility rank is 14th, not first. The country's ascent from 6th place in 2021 to first from 2024 onwards was powered by what the report calls "consistent, reinforcing improvement across all three GPI dimensions, including a quality of life rank of 2nd and an investment climate rank of 9th globally."
"Sweden's dominance demonstrates that composite passport strength, at its most durable, reflects genuine excellence in governance and quality of life — not only mobility," the report stresses.
Also noteworthy, the gap between the world's strongest passport (Sweden) and weakest (Afghanistan) has widened every year since the GPI was launched in 2021.
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