World’s most admired: Twists in the poll – Salman Khan, Kiran Bedi on top

When it comes to being popular, it seems there is no winning formula. And this was fairly evident in YouGov’s Most Admired poll for 2015, surveying 25,000 online respondents from 23 countries, where winners ran the gamut of famous politicians, entertainers, religious leaders, and Nobel Prize winners.

The list of whom India admired most was almost as predictable as it was surprising. While the usual suspects like Sachin Tendulkar, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Katrina Kaif, Malala Yousafzai and the Dalai Lama made the cut, what was totally unexpected was the order in which many of the names appear.

Surprise 1:

While it was not surprising that Prime Minister Modi is among the most admired men in India, what was a little surprising is that he beat out Sachin Tendulkar, who came in second….what a difference a year makes. Modi was also named the 5th most admired man in the world.

Surprise 2:

Salman Khan is the fourth-most admired man in the country, but screen legend Amitabh Bachchan did not even make the Top 10.

Surprise 3:

While Sonia Gandhi has featured previously on polls for women who are admired, who emerged as a surprise, beating Aung San Suu Kyi, Katrina Kaif, and Oprah Winfrey was Kiran Bedi (wavering affiliations, notwithstanding), the most admired woman in India, second in the national poll only to Malala Yousafzai.

Surprise 4:

Bill Gates who was named the most admired man in the world does not appear to have topped even a single national poll.

Surprise 5:

Putin is Russia’s most ‘admired’ man, while Celine Dion is the most admired woman in Nigeria.

So how exactly did they come by these results?

In December last year, YouGov polled panelists from 34 countries, asking: “Thinking about people alive in the world today, which [man or woman] do you most admire?” These nominations were then used to compile a list of the 25 men and 25 women who received the most nominations and were represented in at least 2 of the national polls. YouGov then added 5 popular local figures for individual countries.

Next, YouGov polled 23 of the 34 countries in January, where respondents were asked two questions: “who do you truly admire?” where they could make multiple selections, and “who do you MOST admire?” where they could choose only one name. These two numbers were then combined into a score.

All of the surveys were conducted online. In countries such as China, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Nigeria, Egypt, Thailand, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Australia, United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong and Singapore, where Internet penetration is low, the sample can only be considered as representative of the online population.