There are 6.8 billion people on the planet. These are the 68 who matter.

We are fascinated by power. We stand in awe of those who apply it adroitly — and in fear of those who abuse it. We lust for power. Everyone would rather be a hammer than a nail. The people on this list were chosen because, in various ways, they bend the world to their will. They are heads of state, major religious figures, entrepreneurs and outlaws. Comparing the relative power of such a diverse group is slippery business. To do it, we defined power in four dimensions. First, we asked if a person has influence over a lot of people. For heads-of-state we looked at population, for religious figures we measured the size of their flocks, for CEOs we counted their employees and for media figures we considered the size of their audience.

#1 Hu Jintao

Age: 67
Title: President
Residence: Beijing
Country of citizenship: China


Paramount political leader of more people than anyone else on the planet; exercises near dictatorial control over 1.3 billion people, one-fifth of world's population. Unlike Western counterparts, Hu can divert rivers, build cities, jail dissidents and censor Internet without meddling from pesky bureaucrats, courts. Recently surpassed Japan to become the world's second-largest economy both in absolute and purchasing power terms. Credible estimates have China poised to overtake U.S. as world's largest economy in 25 years — although, crucially, not on a per-capita basis. Creditor nation oversees world's largest reserves at $2.65 trillion — $1.5 trillion of which is in U.S. dollar holdings. Refuses to kowtow to U.S. pressure to change its exchange-rate regime. Heads world's largest army (in size). His handpicked successor, Xi Jinping, set to assume the presidency in 2012.



#2 Barack Obama

Age: 49
Title: President
Residence: Washington, DC
Country of citizenship: United States

Obama's Democrats suffered a mighty blow in U.S. midterm elections, with the president decisively losing support of the House of Representatives, and barely holding onto the Senate. It's quite a come-down for last year's most powerful person, who after enacting widespread reforms in his first two years in office will be hard-pressed to implement his agenda in the next two. He can take comfort in the fact that he remains commander-in-chief of world's largest, deadliest military, leader of world's largest (in spending) and most dynamic economy and holds the unofficial title of "Leader of the Free World."


#3 Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz al Saud

Age: 86
Title: King
Residence: Riyadh
Country of citizenship: Saudi Arabia


Absolute ruler of desert kingdom that contains the world's largest crude oil reserves, two holiest sites in Islam. State-owned oil producer Saudi Aramco has reserves of 266 billion barrels, or one-fifth of planet's known supply (worth $22 trillion at today's oil prices). Pushing for gradual social and legal reforms, while maintaining good relations with deeply conservative religious establishment. Ultimate succession unclear: 86-year-old king's official heir is 82-year-old Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud. Established committee of senior princes to ensure smooth transition in the event both become incapacitated.

#4 Vladimir Putin

Age: 57
Title: Prime Minister
Residence: Moscow
Country of citizenship: Russia

Prime Minister still more powerful than his handpicked head-of-state, President Dmitry Medvedev. Former KGB officer will likely replace protégé in 2012. In the meantime, has final say over one-ninth of Earth's land area, vast energy and mineral resources. Declared nuclear power has veto on U.N.'s Security Council. Russian government agency reported to have already registered web address Putin-2012.rf. On running again: "The president of the United States, Roosevelt, was elected four times in a row because it did not contradict the American Constitution" (September 2010).


AP Photo/Matt Cardy

#5 Pope Benedict XVI

Age: 83
Title: Pope
Residence: Vatican City
Country of citizenship: Germany

Highest earthly authority for 1.1 billion souls, or one-sixth of world's population. Staunch traditionalist deplores secularism, consumerism and moral relativism, unbending on birth control, gay marriage and ordination of female priests. Despite major gaffes (including lifting the excommunication of a Holocaust-denying Bishop and quoting a 14th-century source that declared the only new things the prophet Mohammed brought were "evil and inhuman", appears genuinely interested in healing old wounds. In September, not only became the first Pope to visit Westminster Abbey since the Protestant Reformation, but also shook hands with a clergywoman (another first). Widening sexual abuse scandal could undermine moral authority, but increasingly willing to tackle issue head on: "Forgiveness does not substitute for justice." Stylish: Has brought back traditional red, custom-made "pope shoes" and old-school Ecclesiastical headgear.


#6 Angela Merkel

Age: 56
Title: Chancellor
Residence: Berlin
Country of citizenship: Germany
Marital Status: Married

Most powerful woman on the planet. Chancellor of Germany oversees Europe's largest economy. Renowned free-market champion and favorite of big business, boasts nine public companies with annual sales in excess of $70 billion. In all, there are 57 German companies on the Forbes Global 2000 ranking of the world's largest public companies, with aggregate sales of $1.7 trillion.




AP Photo/Akira Suemori

#7 David Cameron

Age: 43
Title: Prime Minister
Residence: London

Youngest British prime minister in 198 years is product of privilege: Eton, Brasenose College, Oxford; is descended (illegitimately) from King William IV. Hailed by some as the second coming of Margaret Thatcher, Cameron shares the Iron Lady's determination to slash government expenditures (defense, higher education), but as the leader of a coalition government he can ill-afford to repeat her brash divisiveness.




Alex Wong/Getty Images

#8 Ben Bernanke

Age: 56
Title: Chairman
Residence: Washington, DC
Country of citizenship: United States

Some argue Fed's influence is at all-time high, given size of its burgeoning balance sheet ($2.3 trillion) relative to the underlying economy ($14.3 trillion). But Bernanke's options have waned since peak of the financial crisis. He now has essentially only one arrow left in his financial quiver: quantitative easing — in layman's terms, "printing money." He last employed the technique in 2008 and is widely expected to repeat the move this month. At least he's honest: "The U.S. government has a technology, called a printing press, that allows it to produce as many U.S. dollars as it wishes at essentially no cost."


Raveendran/AFP/Getty Images

#9 Sonia Gandhi
Age: 63
Title: President
Residence: New Delhi
Country of citizenship: India

Despite Italian birth, foreign religion (Roman Catholic) and political reluctance, Gandhi wields unequaled influence over 1.2 billion Indians. Recently elected to record fourth term as head of India's ruling Congress Party, cementing status as true heiress to the Nehru-Gandhi political dynasty. Handpicked brainy Sikh economist Manmohan Singh (also a listee) as prime minister. Inspired choice: Singh universally praised as India's best prime minister since Nehru, ideally trained to lead the world's fourth-largest economy in terms of purchasing power into next decade. But Gandhi remains the real power behind the nuclear-tipped throne. Grooming 40-year-old son Rahul for prime minister role.


Krista Kennell/Sipa Press/Newscom

#10 Bill Gates

Age: 54
Title: Co-Chair
Source: Microsoft, self-made
Residence: Medina, WA
Country of citizenship: United States
Education: Dropout , Harvard University
Marital Status: Married
Children: 3

Selling charity raffle tickets is hard; coaxing tycoons to pledge half their fortunes to philanthropy is near impossible. Apparently no one told Gates. This year the Microsoft mogul, futurist and America's richest person strong-armed (with help from henchman Warren Buffett) 40 of the world's wealthiest to sign his "Giving Pledge," promising to donate the majority of their wealth to charity during their lifetimes. No longer the planet's richest person, but that's because he's given nearly $30 billion philanthropically. World's most influential charity tackles AIDS, tuberculosis, polio and funds famine-resistant crops to fight hunger. Worth $54 billion, Gates holds 70% of his wealth in investment fund Cascade, dabbling in everything from autos to hedge funds to trash collecting.

[b]30 Lou Jiwei
Chairman China Investment Corporation

31
Kim Jong-il
Supreme Leader North Korea

32
Li Changchun
Propaganda Chief People's Republic of China

33
Warren Buffett
CEO Berkshire Hathaway

34
Mukesh Ambani
Chairman Reliance Industries

35
Jeffrey Immelt
CEO General Electric

36
Li Ka-shing
Chairman Hutchison Whampoa & Chueng Kong Holdings

37
Dominique Strauss-Kahn
Managing Director International Monetary Fund

38
Masaaki Shirakawa
Governor Bank of Japan

39
Dalai Lama
Dalai Lama Tibet

40
Mark Zuckerberg
Founder Facebook

41
Ban Ki-moon
Secretary-General United Nations

42
Lloyd Blankfein
CEO Goldman Sachs

43
Bernard Arnault
Chairman Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy (LVMH)

44
Lakshmi Mittal
Chairman ArcelorMittal ADS

45
Robert Zoellick
President The World Bank Group

46
Robin Li
CEO Baidu

47
Jamie Dimon
Chairman JPMorgan Chase

48
Larry Fink
CEO BlackRock

49
Rex Tillerson
CEO ExxonMobil

50
Bill Keller
Executive Editor The New York Times

51
Sebastian Pinera
President Chile

52
Igor Sechin
Deputy Prime Minister Russia

53
Abdalla Salem El-Badri
Secretary General Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)

54
Charles Koch
CEO Koch Industries

54
David Koch
Executive Vice President Koch Industries

55
Masayoshi Son
CEO SoftBank

56
Khalifa bin Zayed Al-Nahyan
President United Arab Emirates

57
Osama bin Laden
Founder Al Qaida

58
Eike Batista
CEO EBX Group

59
Bill Gross
Co-Founder PIMCO

60
Joaquin Guzman Loera
Drug Trafficker Sinaloa Cartel

61
Ratan Tata
Chairman Tata Sons

62
Wang Yong
Chairman State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council of China (SASAC)

63
Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar
Leader D-Company

64
Oprah Winfrey
Media Personality The Oprah Winfrey Show

65
Joseph "Sepp" Blatter
President International Federation of Association Football (FIFA)

66
Jeff Bezos
CEO Amazon

67
Jacques Rogge
President International Olympic Committee

68
Julian Assange
Editor-In-Chief WikiLeaks [/b]

Look CLOSELY peeps MY NAME IS WITHIN THOSE LINES. So dont mess with me, i might be on nairaland "relaxing" but i am deffinately amongst the WORLDS MOST POWERFUL FEW PEOPLE.

when i checked forbes for this, i saw the list, but did not see your name,
i must have been oluwole originated, lol