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.
Gallery of 2018 top ten rankings
Historical top ten rankings
Note: No list was released for 2017. 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 20181 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 FoundationFounder 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 FoundationFounder 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 FoundationFounder of Microsoft Janet Yellen U.S. Chair of the Federal Reserve Bill Gates Co-chair of the Gates FoundationFounder 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 FoundationFounder of Microsoft Janet Yellen U.S. Chair of the Federal Reserve Bill Gates Co-chair of the Gates FoundationFounder 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 FoundationFounder 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
2018 list Order Name Nationality Position/Function 1Xi Jinping General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party2Vladimir PutinPresident of Russia 3Donald Trump President of the United States (left office in 2021, returned in 2025) 4 Angela Merkel Chancellor of Germany (resigned in 2021)5 Jeff Bezos CEO of Amazon 6 Pope Francis / Bishop of Rome, Pope of the Catholic Church (died in 2025)7 Bill Gates Founder of Microsoft 8 Mohammed bin Salman Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia 9 Narendra Modi Prime Minister of India 10 Larry Page Co-founder of Google 11 Jerome Powell Chairman of the United States Federal Reserve 12 Emmanuel Macron President of France 13 Mark Zuckerberg CEO of Facebook, Inc (renamed Meta Platforms, Inc in 2021) 14 Theresa May Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (resigned in 2019) 15Li Keqiang Premier of China (resigned in 2023)16 Warren Buffett Chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway 17Ali Khamenei Supreme Leader of Iran (died in 2026) 18 Mario Draghi President of the European Central Bank (resigned in 2019)19 Jamie Dimon CEO of JPMorgan Chase 20 Carlos Slim Chairman of Telmex, Chairman Emeritus of América Móvil 21 Jack Ma Founder of Alibaba 22 Christine Lagarde Director of the International Monetary Fund (resigned in 2019)23 Doug McMillon CEO of Walmart 24 Tim Cook CEO of Apple Inc. 25 Elon Musk , and Founder and CEO of SpaceX, CEO of Tesla26 Benjamin Netanyahu Prime Minister of Israel 27 Ma Huateng Chairman and CEO of Tencent 28 Larry Fink Co-founder and CEO of BlackRock 29 Akio Toyoda Chairman of Toyota 30 John L. Flannery CEO of General Electric (resigned in 2018)31 António Guterres Secretary-General of the United Nations 32 Mukesh Ambani Chairman of Reliance Industries 33 Jean-Claude Juncker President of the European Commission (resigned in 2019)34 Darren Woods CEO of ExxonMobil 35 Sergey Brin Co-founder of Google, President of Alphabet (resigned in 2019) 36 Kim Jong-Un General Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea (North Korea) 37 Charles Koch Chairman and CEO of Koch, Inc. 38 Shinzo Abe Prime Minister of Japan (resigned in 2020, died in 2022)39 Rupert Murdoch Chairman of News Corp (resigned in 2023)40 Satya Nadella Chairman and CEO of Microsoft 41 Jim Yong Kim President of the World Bank (resigned in 2019)42 Stephen A. Schwarzman Chairman and CEO of Blackstone Group 43 Khalifa bin Zayed al Nahyan President of the United Arab Emirates (resigned in 2023) 44 Haruhiko Kuroda Governor of the Bank of Japan (resigned in 2023)45 Abdul Fatah Khalil Al-Sisi President of Egypt 46 Li Ka-Shing Chairman of CK Hutchison Holdings (resigned in May 2018)47 Lloyd Blankfein CEO of Goldman Sachs (resigned at the end of 2018)48 Recep Tayyip Erdogan President of Turkey 49 Bob Iger CEO of The Walt Disney Company 50 Michel Temer President of Brazil (resigned in 2019)51 Michael Bloomberg Founder and CEO of Bloomberg (resigned in 2023)52 Wang Jianlin Chairman, founder, and majority shareholder of Dalian Wanda Group 53 Mary Barra Chair of Board and CEO of General Motors 54 Moon Jae-in President of South Korea (resigned in 2022)55 Masayoshi Son Founder, chairman and CEO of SoftBank 56Bernard Arnault Founder, chairman and CEO of LVMH 57 Justin Trudeau Prime Minister of Canada (resigned in 2025)58 Robin Li CEO of Baidu 59 Michael Dell Founder, chairman and CEO of Dell Technologies 60 Hui Ka Yan Chairman and Communist Party secretary of Evergrande Group 61Lee Hsien Loong Prime Minister of Singapore (resigned in 2021)62 Bashar al-Assad President of Syria (removed from office in 2024)63 John Roberts Chief Justice of the United States64Enrique Peña Nieto President of Mexico (resigned in November 2018) 65 Kenneth C. Griffin Chairman of Citadel Investment Group 66 Aliko Dangote President and CEO of Dangote Group 67 Mike Pence Vice President of the United States (left office in 2021)68 Qamar Javed Bajwa de facto Commander-in-Chief of the Pakistan Armed Forces (retired in 2022)69 Rodrigo Duterte President of the Philippines (resigned in 2022)70 Abigail Johnson CEO of Fidelity Investments 71 Reed Hastings Founder and chairman of Netflix 72 Robert Mueller Special Counsel for the United States Department of Justice (office abolished in 2019)73 Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi Self-proclaimed Caliph of the Islamic State (died in 2019)74 Joko Widodo President of Indonesia (resigned in 2024)75 Gianni Infantino President of FIFA
Listed seven or more times Listed every time
Mukesh Ambani Lloyd Blankfein Michael Bloomberg Sergey Brin Warren Buffett Jamie Dimon Larry Fink Bill Gates Li Ka-shing Ali Khamenei Angela Merkel Rupert Murdoch Benjamin Netanyahu Larry Page Vladimir Putin Carlos Slim
Listed eight times
Bernard Arnault (not listed: 2016) Jeff Bezos (not listed: 2009) Jeff Immelt (not listed: 2018) Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan (not listed: 2009) Charles Koch (not listed: 2009) Robin Li (not listed: 2009) Barack Obama (not listed: 2018) Masayoshi Son (not listed: 2009) Rex Tillerson (not listed: 2018) Mark Zuckerberg (not listed: 2009)
Listed seven times
Tim Cook (not listed: 2009 and 2010) Mario Draghi (not listed: 2009 and 2010) Xi Jinping (not listed: 2009 and 2010) Christine Lagarde (not listed: 2009 and 2010) Lakshmi Mittal (not listed: 2016 and 2018) John Roberts (not listed: 2010 and 2011) Akio Toyoda (not listed: 2010 and 2011)
See also Forbes list of the World's 100 Most Powerful Women Time 100 Time 100: The Most Important People of the Century Forbes list of the world's highest-paid athletes Forbes Global 2000 The World's Billionaires 40 Under 40 QS World University Rankings
References
External links The World's Most Powerful People, Forbes.