The YouGov survey, which interviewed over 42,000 people in 41 nations, saw former America’s first lady as the world’s number one admired female, followed by Oprah Winfrey, Angelina Jolie, Queen Elizabeth II, and Emma Watson.
Throughout the years, Mrs. Obama has influenced millions of women and later toured the world in support of her memoir “Becoming”, that broke records around the globe.
The Harvard Grad debut memoir became the fastest-selling audiobook in the history of Penguin Random House and saw her talk at some of the world’s largest places including London’s O2 arena as she addressed life, career, family, and love.
The full list of most admired women in the world are:
- Michelle Obama
- Oprah Winfrey
- Angelina Jolie
- Queen Elizabeth II
- Emma Watson
- Malala Yousafzai
- Peng Liyuan
- Hillary Clinton
- Tu Youyou
- Taylor Swift
- Madonna
- Angela Merkel
- Deepika Padukone
- Priyanka Chopra
- Ellen Degeneres
- Aishwarya Rai
- Sushmita Sen
- Theresa May
- Melania Trump
- Yang Mi
Meanwhile, Microsoft owner Bill Gates was labeled as the most admired person in the world, maintaining his position at the top of the list.
The next four admired men, along with Barack Obama, Jackie Chan, Xi Jinping, and Jack Ma, also remained the same as the results of the last poll.
See the full list of admired men in the world below:
- Bill Gates
- Barack Obama
- Jackie Chan
- Xi Jinping
- Jack Ma
- Narendra Modi
- Cristiano Ronaldo
- Dalai Lama
- Lionel Messi
- Vladimir Putin
- Warren Buffett
- Amitabh Bachchan
- Elon Musk
- Donald Trump
- Pope Francis
- Shahrukh Khan
- Imran Khan
- Salman Khan
- Recep Tayyip Erdogan
- Andy Lau
YouGov collected open-ended nominations from panelists across 41 nations in December, asking them: “Thinking about people living in the globe today, who do you most admire[ man or woman]?” These nominations were then used to compile a list of the most-nominated 20 males and 20 females in at least four nations. For individual countries, an extra 10 popular local figures were added to the lists.