Every year YouGov holds an international survey to determine the most admired women and men in the world. The public figures in contention span entertainment, politics, sports and business, and the results are calculated on the basis of two questions about the candidates — whether a respondent admires the figure at all and then, whether the celebrity is the one the respondent admires the most. Each nation’s results are then scaled so that population size isn’t a deciding factor in the end result. This year, the study expanded to 35 countries, some of which were the UK, USA, India, Germany, Spain, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Russia.
Angelina Jolie topped the Most Admired Women list, whereas Bill Gates took the same spot among the men. Interestingly, the women’s list was dominated by entertainment personalities, whereas the men’s featured figures from politics, business and sports. Internationally, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Priyanka Chopra and Deepika Padukone were the only three Indian women on the list, ranking at 11th,12th and 13th respectively. Making Aishwaria the most admired Bollywood actress globally.
However when you check the results solely from the survey conducted in India, it’s heartening to know that former law enforcement officer Kiran Bedi, singer Lata Mangeshkar and badminton star P. V Sindhu take the top three spots with Angelina Jolie at number nine. Deepika, Aishwarya and Priyanka feature at numbers 4, 7 and 8 respectively.
On the international list for most admired men, Narendra Modi and Amitabh Bachchan feature at the 8 and 9 spot respectively.
Here is the full list: