Obama most popular leader in world, Modi 7th: Survey

London, Dec 23: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been voted as the seventh most popular leader in the world in a new poll topped by US President Barack Obama.

Modi evoked a favourable view from 24 per cent of people polled throughout 65 countries around the world as opposed to 20 per cent unfavourable, giving him a score of +4 per cent in the WIN/Gallup survey for ORB International's 'International World Leader Index'.

Modi was however beaten by Chinese President Xi Jinping, who was named the sixth most popular leader but had a higher unfavourable score than the Indian leader -- 30 per cent.

Obama grabbed the topmost spot with a score of +30 per cent with a whopping 59 per cent in his favour and 29 per cent unfavourable. "President Obama is significantly more admired around the world than anyone else," the survey said.

Obama is followed by German Chancellor Angela Merkel (+13 per cent) with British Prime Minister David Cameron completing the top three with a score of +10 per cent.

Cameron scored a 37 per cent favourable rating while another 28 per cent viewed him unfavourably. People in South Asia were the most friendly to the British leader, with 53 per cent saying they viewed him favourably and just 12 per cent saying they viewed him unfavourably.

He was also popular in the rest of Europe and sub-Saharan Africa, where 44 per cent of people viewed Cameron favourably.

The other leaders that made it to the top 10 include French President Francois Hollande (4th), Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin (5th), Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff (8th), Saudi Arabia King Salman bin Abdulaziz al Saud (9th) and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani (10th).

PTI