Gallup
Gallup may refer to:
*Gallup, Inc., a firm founded by George Gallup, well known for its opinion poll
*Gallup (surname), a surname
*Gallup, New Mexico, a city in New Mexico, United States
**Gallup station, an Amtrak train in downtown Gallup, New Me ...
, an American analytics and advisory company, has conducted an annual
opinion poll to determine the most admired man and woman in the
United States at the end of most years since 1946.
Americans are asked, without prompting, to say which man and woman "living today in any part of the world" they admire the most.
The results of the poll published as a top-ten list. In most years, the most admired man has been the incumbent
president of the United States, and the most admired woman has been the
first lady
First lady is an unofficial title usually used for the wife, and occasionally used for the daughter or other female relative, of a non-monarchical
A monarchy is a form of government in which a person, the monarch, is head of state fo ...
.
The incumbent president has been the most admired man in 58 of the 72 years in which the poll has been conducted.
and
Barack Obama have each been the most admired man 12 times.
In his lifetime, the evangelist
Billy Graham had 61 appearances in the top-ten list, the most of any individual, and 8 second-place finishes.
Other men with many appearances are
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan ( ; February 6, 1911June 5, 2004) was an American politician, actor, and union leader who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He also served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 ...
(31),
Jimmy Carter (28), and
Pope John Paul II (27).
The incumbent
pope has finished in the top-ten list every year since 1977.
The survey has been considered, in part, to be a test of
name recognition
In politics, name recognition is the ability a voter has to identify a candidate's name due to a certain amount of previous exposure through various campaigning methods. It can be described as the awareness voters have about specific candidates r ...
. While the top of the list is often predictable, scholars have found appearances further down in the top ten to be illuminating. For instance, in 1958, Governor
Orval Faubus of Arkansas, a segregationist, appeared on the list in the wake of the
Little Rock Nine civil-rights episode.
Two former first ladies have had the most appearances as the most admired woman:
Eleanor Roosevelt and
Hillary Clinton. In the late 1940s and 1950s, Roosevelt was an
ambassador to the United Nations, serving as the chair of the
United Nations Commission on Human Rights and leading the drafting of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and was widely referred to as the "First Lady of the World". Clinton served as the first lady from 1993 to 2001, a senator from New York, the
secretary of state, and was the first American female presidential nominee of either of the two major American political parties when she ran in the
2016 presidential election
This national electoral calendar for 2016 lists the national/federal elections held in 2016 in all sovereign states and their dependent territories. By-elections are excluded, though national referendums are included.
January
*7 January: Kirib ...
. Clinton topped the list in 22 of the 25 polls conducted during between 1993 and 2017, including 16 times in a row from 2002 to 2017, before
Michelle Obama
Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama (born January 17, 1964) is an American attorney and author who served as first lady of the United States from 2009 to 2017. She was the first African-American woman to serve in this position. She is married t ...
became the most admired woman in 2018.
Roosevelt was named the most admired woman 13 times. The highest number of top-ten appearances belongs to
Queen Elizabeth II
Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. She was queen ...
, with 52.
Despite never winning, broadcaster
Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Gail Winfrey (; born Orpah Gail Winfrey; January 29, 1954), or simply Oprah, is an American talk show host, television producer, actress, author, and philanthropist. She is best known for her talk show, ''The Oprah Winfrey Show'', br ...
has finished in the top ten a total of 33 times,
including finishing second 14 times.
In 1980,
Mother Teresa and
Rosalynn Carter tied for the most admired woman, and in 2019, Barack Obama and
Donald Trump shared the title of most admired man. For the years 1946 and 1947, the "most admired person" was asked; the "most admired woman" was not asked in 1967.
No poll was conducted in 1976 or 2021. A portion of those surveyed chose a friend or relative instead of a public figure.
Most admired man and woman
See also
*
Gallup's List of Most Widely Admired People of the 20th Century
Note
References
External links
Gallup's most admired man and woman poll– news.Gallup.com
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Opinion polling in the United States
Top people lists
American culture
United States politics-related lists