This year’s list for the most power people in the world was released on November 4th on the magazine Forbes. For the third time in succession, Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, came on top. This year there were 73 people on the Forbes list. This is one person for every 100 million people who live on the Earth. Angela Merkel, Germany’s chancellor, is second. Last year she was at number five. The president of the U.S Barack Obama fell from 2nd place to 3rd place. This is the first time that the American president has not been in the top 2. Pope Francis is the leader of the Roman Catholic Church. He is number four.

Being powerful can mean many different things. Forbes uses certain rules that come where on its list. One is the number of people a person has power over. Mr. Putin is one of the few people in the world who is powerful enough to do what they want. In Russia, he is a very popular leader. Germany is the leading European Union country. Therefore, Mrs. Merkel has power over 500 million people, or the populations of all 28 EU member countries. The U.S. is still the world’s greatest economic and military power. However, Forbes believes that Mr. Obama’s influence is declining.