Former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama have topped the list of most admired man and woman in the world, according to YouGov’s annual poll released on Tuesday, The Independent reported. The couple both secured the top spots in the list of the world’s most admired person for the men and women’s polls respectively.
Mr Obama replaced Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates in first place for the time since YouGov started the survey since 2014, according to the organization. Mr Gates ranked second and Chinese president Xi secured third place. Ms Obama however, retained her title as the most admired woman for the second year in a row, with Angelina Jolie taking second place, rising one place since 2019. Queen Elizabeth II ranked third.
The former president is admired in more admired than current President Donald Trump in every country, except one: Russia, where he comes four places in front of Obama at 11th versus 15th.
Mr Trump also fell into second place behind Mr Obama on the US most admired man list and slipped one spot to 15th place globally.
This years poll was said to be the largest ever in its history, conducted with more than 45,000 people in 42 countries and territories being interviewed to compile the list. “The results are calculated from the combination of responses to two questions – whether a respondent admires the figure at all and then whether they are the figure the respondent admires the most,” YouGov said.
Elsewhere on the list, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk saw the greatest increase since last years poll, climbing four places from 13th to ninth. Human rights campaigner Malala Yousafzai fell the farthest, moving from 6th place to 14th. Greta Thunberg, Beyoncé, Keanu Reeves, Scarlett Johansson, Michael Jordan and Indonesian President Joko Widodo are among the new additions to the top twenties this year.