Malaysia Passport Leaps to #3 in Global Ranking, but Not Everyone Agrees

By Danial Martinus • 06 Nov 2025 in News

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Malaysians enjoy easy travel to most major destinations across the world. But where we stand on a global scale also determines just how strong our passport really is.

According to the recently updated 2025 Passport Index by Arton Capital, the Malaysian passport is now the third most powerful in the world.

Visa-free access to 174 countries worldwide, depending on where you look

The latest update shows that Malaysian passport holders now get visa-free access to 174 countries, putting the country shoulder-to-shoulder with heavyweights like France, Germany, Italy, and South Korea. It’s a big improvement, considering the fact that the Malaysian passport was already pretty strong to begin with.

The top spot went to the United Arab Emirates, whose citizens enjoy visa-free access to 179 countries, with Singapore and Spain tied for second place with 175 destinations.

But here’s where it gets interesting (and a little conflicting): not every passport ranking agrees with this order.

(source: Immigration Department of Malaysia)

If you check the Henley & Partners passport index, another globally recognised list, Malaysia’s passport lands at 12th place with 180 visa-free destinations, coming no where near the top three. It’s notably behind Singapore, Japan, and several European countries.

This begs the question: how can two global indexes show such different results for the same passport? It all comes down to methodology and criteria.

The Passport Index by Arton Capital, which crowned Malaysia third, updates its data in real time and also includes territories and microstates that other rankings might overlook. It also considers temporary and newly negotiated visa agreements, giving people a more dynamic snapshot of passport power.

Critics of this list argue that it’s wrong to place certain countries together, due to differences in geo-political importance. For example, Taiwan and Kiribati both share 34th place, but the former is arguably a more significant destination on the global stage, making its passport strength more relevant to travellers.

The Henley & Partners list, on the other hand, takes a stricter, more traditional approach to their ranking method. They base their list on data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA), and it only counts full visa-free or visa-on-arrival access.

Taking the Taiwan vs Kiribati example, Henley & Partners places Taiwan in 37th place, while Kiribati is lower at 46th.

Malaysia’s passport ranks 12th, according to this list. (source: Henley & Partners)

Basically, Arton’s Passport Index focuses on agility, while Henley & Partners focuses more on stability.

Regardless of which list you prefer, it’s pretty clear that Malaysians have got it good when it comes to international travel. And whether you see our passport as third or 12th place, there’s no denying that our little red book is one of the most respected passports in Asia.

That’s good enough for most of us, this writer would say.