Mozambique and Comoros placed first on Henley Openness Index

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Mozambique and Comoros placed first on Henley Openness Index

9:51 CAT | 28 Jul 2025

The Henley Openness Index ranks all 199 countries and territories worldwide according to the number of nationalities they permit entry to without a prior visa. Use our unique interactive tool to explore the relationship between a country’s openness to foreigners — how many nations it allows to cross its borders visa-free — and its own citizens’ travel freedom, gauged using the Henley Passport Index.[Image: Henley & Partners]

The recently released 2025 Henley Openness Index by Henley and Partners, which measures 199 countries’ openness to foreign visitors according to the number of countries they permit entry to without a visa, has ranked Mozambique and Comoros first on its global index list.

This index utilises data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA).

The Henley Openness Index ranked Comoros and Mozambique first, both with an openness score of 198 out of a possible score of 198 countries for visa-free entry, placing them first not only on the global index but first in the Southern African Development Community (SADC).

Following closely, both Madagascar and Seychelles ranked second globally with an openness score of 197. Mauritius ranked 10th with an openness score of 183, while Tanzania ranked 12th with an openness index of 173. Malawi ranked 21st with an openness score of 147, and Zambia and Zimbabwe both ranked 23rd with ana openness score of 145 each.

Meanwhile, Namibia ranked 36th globally witan a openness score of 111, and Botswana follows at 42nd with an openness score of 103.

Angola ranked 44th with an openness score of 100, while eSwatini follows with a ranking of 50 and openness score of 94.

South Africa ranked 57th with a openness score of 86, and the Democratic Republic of Congo ranked 97th allowing only seven countries visa-free entry.

Beyond the Openness Index, Henley and Partners released the Passport Index, which compares the visa-free access of 199 different passports to 227 travel destinations.

Seychelles leads this index with a global ranking of 24 and visa-free access to 156 destinations out of the possible 226.

Mauritius’s passport ranked 27th with visa-free access to 149 destinations, while South Africa ranked 48th with visa-free access to 103 destinations. Botswana follows at 59th with 85, Namibia at 63rd with 79, Lesotho at 65th with 76, and eSwatini at 66th with access to 74 destinations.

Furthermore, Malawi’s passport, ranked 67th, offers access to 73 destinations, Tanzania ranked 70th to 70, Zambia ranked 71st to 67, Zimbabwe ranked 73rd to 63, Mozambique ranked 74th to 62, Madagascar ranked 78th to 58, and Comoros ranked 83rd to 52 destinations.

Angola ranked 86th with access to 48 destinations, and the Democratic Republic of Congo ranked 90 with access to 43 global destinations.

Source: The Economist Namibia