World Leaders On Facebook 2020: Modi Most Popular; Find Out Others In The List

Donald Trump is the second most popular world leader on Facebook, with more than 26 million likes and Jordan’s Queen Rania is in the third position with 16.8 million likes

Photo: AFP

New Delhi, April 24: As countries are globally fighting the deadly Covid-19 and taking measures to infuse confidence in people and economy, it is also the time for world leaders to connect with masses and expand their reach as millions are flocking to social media for answers, advice, and support.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has emerged as the most popular world leader on Facebook, with more than 44.7 million likes on his personal page and 13.7 million likes on his institutional Prime Minister of India page, which is in the fourth position, according to a study conducted by global communications agency BCW (Burson Cohn & Wolfe).

In fact, Narendra Modi has also achieved consistently high approval ratings for the fight against Covid-19 fight high in a recent survey quoted in a tweet by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. The nation has shown confidence in its leadership in an extraordinary situation due to a pandemic.

Coming back to the survey Here is the list of top 10 most liked world leader ranking on Facebook.

• US President Donald Trump is the second most popular world leader on Facebook, with more than 26 million likes on his personal Facebook page, which has grown by more than nine percent over the past 12 months.
• Jordan’s Queen Rania has seen a slight decline of the likes on her Facebook page over the past 12 months but is still in third position with 16.8 million likes, reaching an Arabic and English audience well beyond the 5.48 million Facebook users in Jordan.
• The Facebook page of Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen is still growing in the double-digits. The page has 12.7 million likes, which is almost twice as much as the country has Facebook users (7.7 million) but still less than the 29 million people interested in the Khmer language on Facebook.
• Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro is in sixth position, with 10 million page likes and a 7.7 percent growth rate over the past year.
• Indonesian President Joko Widodo, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the White House complete the Top 10 of the most popular world leaders on Facebook, each with more than 9 million likes.

Fifty-six world leaders can boast more than 1 million likes on their respective Facebook pages. However, not everyone has such large communities and the median average of the 721 pages analysed stands at 45,852 likes.

However, US President Donald Trump dominates the rankings for the most interactions with 309 million comments, likes and shares on his Facebook page over the past 12 months, ahead of Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro with 205 million interactions. The Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has more than four times as many page likes is only in third place with a total of 84 million interactions over the past 12 months.

The study has observed that governments and leaders from around 184 countries had an official presence on the social network, representing 95 percent of the 193 UN member states.

The report, in its fourth edition, titled "World Leaders on Facebook", said March witnessed a significant spike in the following of state leaders, specifically because of the coronavirus outbreak.

Other Key Leaders who joined the rankings are as below:

Ghana’s President Nana Akufo-Addo is the most popular leader in Sub-Saharan Africa with 1.6 million likes, ahead of Rwanda’s Paul Kagame. However, Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali has made it into the Top 10 list with 735,000-page likes and he has the best true reach, reaching 35 percent of his Facebook community.

Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro is by far the most popular leader on Facebook in Latin America with more than 10 million page likes ahead of Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador with 6.4 million likes. Nayib Bukele, the new President of El Salvador, has shot into third position with 2,229,506 page likes and a growth rate of 46 percent.

As of March 1, 2020, French President Emmanuel Macron was the most liked EU leader with 2.5 million likes ahead of Italy’s Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio and Romanian President Klaus Iohannis with 2.2 and 1.8 million Facebook likes, respectively. However, Italy’s Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte who enjoys a healthy growth of 26 percent over the past 12 months is bound to become the most followed EU leader.

For the first time the Russian Foreign Ministry tops the list of the most active world leaders with an average of more than 27 posts per day over the past 12 months. The governments of Uzbekistan and Botswana are in second and third position with more than 20 posts per day.