Forbes list of the World's Most Powerful People

Between 2009 and 2018 (with absence in 2017) the business magazine Forbes had compiled an annual list of the world's most powerful people. The list had one slot for every 100 million people, meaning in 2009 there were 67 people on the list, and by 2018, there were 75. Slots were allocated based on the amount of human and financial resources that they had sway over, as well as their influence on world events.[1]

Logo of Forbes magazine
Vladimir Putin was ranked the most powerful person 4 times.

Historical top ten rankings

Note: No list was released for 2017.

2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015[2] 2016[3] 2018[4]
1   Barack Obama

President of the United States

    Hu Jintao

General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party

    Barack Obama

President of the United States

    Vladimir Putin

President of Russia

    Xi Jinping

General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party

2   Hu Jintao

General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party

    Barack Obama

President of the United States

    Vladimir Putin

Prime Minister of Russia

    Angela Merkel

Chancellor of Germany

    Barack Obama

President of the United States

    Angela Merkel

Chancellor of Germany

    Donald Trump

President-elect of the United States

    Vladimir Putin

President of Russia

3   Vladimir Putin

Prime Minister of Russia

    Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud

King of Saudi Arabia

    Hu Jintao

General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party

    Vladimir Putin

President of Russia

    Xi Jinping

General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party

    Barack Obama

President of the United States

    Angela Merkel

Chancellor of Germany

    Donald Trump

President of the United States

4   Ben Bernanke

U.S. Chair of the Federal Reserve

    Vladimir Putin

Prime Minister of Russia

    Angela Merkel

Chancellor of Germany

    Bill Gates

Co-Chair of the Gates Foundation
Founder of Microsoft

    Francis

Pope of the Holy See

    Xi Jinping

General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party

    Angela Merkel

Chancellor of Germany

5   Sergey Brin

  Larry Page
Co-Founders of Google

    Benedict XVI

Pope of the Holy See

    Bill Gates

Co-Chair of the Gates Foundation
Founder of Microsoft

    Benedict XVI

Pope of the Holy See

    Angela Merkel

Chancellor of Germany

    Xi Jinping

General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party

    Francis

Pope of the Holy See

    Jeff Bezos

Chairman and CEO of Amazon

6   Carlos Slim

Chief Executive of Telmex

    Angela Merkel

Chancellor of Germany

    Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud

King of Saudi Arabia

    Ben Bernanke

U.S. Chair of the Federal Reserve

    Bill Gates

Co-Chair of the Gates Foundation
Founder of Microsoft

    Janet Yellen

U.S. Chair of the Federal Reserve

    Bill Gates

Co-Chair of the Gates Foundation
Founder of Microsoft

    Janet Yellen

U.S. Chair of the Federal Reserve

    Francis

Pope of the Holy See

7   Rupert Murdoch

Chairman of News Corporation

    David Cameron

Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

    Benedict XVI

Pope of the Holy See

    Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud

King of Saudi Arabia

    Ben Bernanke

U.S. Chair of the Federal Reserve

    Bill Gates

Co-Chair of the Gates Foundation
Founder of Microsoft

    Janet Yellen

U.S. Chair of the Federal Reserve

    Bill Gates

Co-Chair of the Gates Foundation
Founder of Microsoft

8   Mike Duke

Chief Executive of Walmart

    Ben Bernanke

U.S. Chair of the Federal Reserve

    Mario Draghi

President of the European Central Bank

    Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud

King of Saudi Arabia

    Mario Draghi

President of the European Central Bank

    David Cameron

Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

    Larry Page

Co-Founder of Google

    Mohammad bin Salman Al Saud

Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia

9   Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud

King of Saudi Arabia

    Sonia Gandhi

President of the Indian National Congress

    Mark Zuckerberg

Founder and CEO of Facebook

    Xi Jinping

General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party

    Mario Draghi

President of the European Central Bank

    Sergey Brin

    Larry Page
Co-Founders of Google

    Narendra Modi

Prime Minister of India

10   Bill Gates

Co-Chair of the Gates Foundation
Founder of Microsoft

    David Cameron

Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

    Mike Duke

Chief Executive of Walmart

    David Cameron

Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

    Larry Page

Co-Founder of Google

    Mark Zuckerberg

Co-Founder of Facebook

    Larry Page

Co-Founder of Google

Listed seven or more times

Listed every time

Listed eight times

Listed seven times

See also

References

  1. ^ Noer, Michael; Perlroth, Nicole (11 November 2009). "The World's Most Powerful People". Forbes. Retrieved 2009-11-16.
  2. ^ Ewalt, David M. (4 November 2015). "The World's Most Powerful People 2015". Forbes. Retrieved 10 May 2018.
  3. ^ Ewalt, David M. (14 December 2016). "The World's Most Powerful People 2016". Forbes. Retrieved 10 May 2018.
  4. ^ Ewalt, David M. (8 May 2018). "The World's Most Powerful People 2018". Forbes. Retrieved 10 May 2018.