We asked the YouGov First Verdict panel to say which of ten current world leaders and which of ten recent world leaders were most worthy of their admiration.
Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu won the most admired serving leader with a 23% score. Even though he has only just been elected the PM of Canada, Justin Trudeau came second with 21%. Angela Merkel got a bronze medal with 11% and Britain’s David Cameron came 4th with 6%.

Margaret Thatcher narrowly beat Nelson Mandela by 30% to 29% in the vote on most admired leader from recent history. Tony Blair with 10% received twice as many votes as Russia’s Mikhail Gorbachev.

Some readers might quarrel with the ten leaders we shortlisted for each of the two votes but hopefully we identified most of the key contenders each time.
For more about Portrait of America and the methodology behind First Verdict, click here.For the complete Portrait of America catalog, click here.