TOP INFLUENTIAL WOMEN IN THE WORLD

The top influential women in the world according to search volume, total social following, number of GIFs and Wikipedia searches...

As a brand we are inspired by women every day and strive to empower women through self-love, both in our products and messaging. That’s why we have undertaken research to find out who the most influential women are around the world. From singer-songwriters to politicians, we believe every woman has the ability to inspire and influence in a positive way.

We have looked at the number of searches each person has generated over the last year, how many followers they have across social media, the number of GIFs there are of each woman and finally the number of Wikipedia page views.

Ready to be inspired by some of the world's most influential women? Find out who came top in our index ranking below.

The top 100 influential women in the world

How the popularity of influential women has changed over time

According to our index, Ariana Grande is the most influential woman in the UK with a total of 7.4 million UK Google searches, followed by Kim Kardashian with 6.3 million UK Google searches.

While both Ariana and Kim are in the media and entertainment sector, there is a significant difference in their social following, with Ariana Grande totalling 328.3 million followers across all platforms - almost 29 million more than Kim Kardashian, who has 299.7 million followers.

Nine out of the top ten influential women are in the media and entertainment sector, with one exception being Kamala Harris, who comes under the politics and policy category.

To create this index, we analysed five key factors that play a part in what we consider to be an influential woman in the 21st century, then combined them into a weighted rank to reveal our top 100. You can find more detail on each factor below.

THE UK’S MOST SEARCHED FOR INFLUENTIAL WOMEN IN HISTORY

First Minister of Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon comes top with a staggering 5.2 million Google searches from the UK alone.

Second position goes to British actress and screenwriter Michaela Coel who received over 1.1 million UK searches. In true royal style, Queen Elizabeth II is the third most searched for influential woman with a total of over 750,000 UK searches.

British nurse and former Chief Executive of the Royal College of Nursing, Donna Kinnair DBE and COO of the NHS Amanda Pritchard both appear in the top ten under the health category, with 17,130 and 8,820 UK Google searches respectively.

It’s both positive and encouraging to see a variety of women from different professions achieving such high popularity through Google searches and inspiring the next generation of influential women.

MOST POPULAR CATEGORIES

Media and entertainment is the most populated category for influential women, with 29 out of 100 women falling into this category. The likes of pop singers Cardi B and Ariana Grande, reality stars Kim Kardashian and Kylie Jenner and actress Angelina Jolie are just some of the influential women in history that appear in the media and entertainment category.

The second most populated category is sports, with 27 influential women from the top 100 in this category. Gold medallist swimmer Katie Ledecky, beach volleyball player Misty May Treanor, and tennis champions Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova are just some of the influential women who sit within the sports category.

Politics and policy is the third most popular category with 22 women. Notable American women fall into this category, such as Michelle Obama, Kamala Harris and Hillary Clinton. Some UK women make the top 100 too, including Nicola Sturgeon and Her Majesty the Queen.

MOST FOLLOWED INFLUENTIAL WOMEN

When it comes to social following, Instagram queen Ariana Grande takes the top spot with a staggering 328 million followers across all social platforms. 255 million of these are from Instagram alone, where Grande updates fans regularly with behind-the-scenes videos, sassy selfies and song exclusives.

American actress and singer Selena Gomez takes second place with a total of 304 million followers on social media, and American socialite Kim Kardashian comes third with 300 million, sharing content around fashion, beauty and lifestyle while constantly setting trends.

MOST ‘GIFABLE’ INFLUENTIAL WOMEN

American racing driver Danica Patrick is the most ‘gifable’ influential woman in the UK index analysis, she has appeared in 7813 GIFs in total. Following Danica is Olympic Swimming Gold Medallist Katie Ledecky with 4856 GIFs and the third most ‘gifable’ influential woman is singer Taylor Swift who appears in 4303 gifs in total.

Most influential women Wikipedia page views

WOMEN WITH THE MOST WIKIPEDIA PAGE VIEWS

Wikipedia page views were another metric within our analysis, where we found that Kamala Harris was the influential woman who experienced the most page views, 39 thousand in 2020.

Following Kamala Harris was singer songwriter Billie Eilish who gathered 13 thousand page views in 2020, and third is Melania Trump with just under 10 thousand Wikipedia page views in 2020.

These influential women are champions of self-care and self-love. They realise that taking the time out of a busy schedule is so important when leading a busy life. If you’re feeling inspired to up your own self-care regime, try indulging in a selection of our body butters, body scrubs and facemasks, which are perfect for helping you to relax and unwind after a long day.

Methodology and Sources

We looked at existing reports to find out the top influential women in the world, before analysing the women across the different industries they work in. We gathered Google search data for the UK, US and Canada, number of followers on Instagram and Twitter, number of page views on Wikipedia for 2020, as well as the number of GIFs.

These factors were combined into a weighted rank using min to max normalisation, in order to provide us with an overall ranking. Data pulled July 2021. View the full dataset here.