The South African passport has fallen in the latest Henley Passport Index ranking, which reveals the newest rankings of all of the world’s passports and visa-free destinations.
The Henley Passport Index is the original, authoritative ranking of all the world’s passports based on the number of destinations their passport-holders can travel to visa-free.
“With historical data spanning 19 years, the Henley Passport Index is the only one of its kind based on exclusive data from the International Air Transport Authority (IATA). The index includes 199 different passports and 227 different travel destinations.” Henley & Partners says.
South African passport drops down one spot on the passport index, but it’s not all bad news
And now, according to these rankings, the SA passport has dropped from its previous position of 47 in February 2026 to number 51 on the list of 199 passports.
Despite this, the updated index also revealed that South Africans with a passport can now travel to 101 destinations without requiring a visa. This is up from 100 in February, having now gained visa-free access to the West-African nation of Togo.
Here is the updated list of all the visa-free, visa-on-arrival, and eTA-required destinations South Africans can travel to, as per the Henley Passport Index:
