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Who do Swedes admire most in 2015?

The Local Sweden
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Who do Swedes admire most in 2015?

British actress and equal rights activist Emma Watson is among the top ten women most admired by Swedes, while Sweden Democrat leader Jimmie Åkesson scores a place above Pope Francis in a new YouGov poll of global idols.

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In a nation famous for gender equality, Swedes have their pick of female icons. These include four political party leaders, top managers from magazine media mogul Amelia Adamo to retail queen Antonia Ax:son Johnson and a successful women's football team headed by legendary coach Pia Sundhage.
 
But when asked which women they most admired in the world for global pollsters YouGov, just three Swedes made the top ten: Crown Princess Victoria, Foreign Minister Margot Wallström and the leader of Sweden's Feminist party Gudrun Schyman.
 
The list was headed up by Pakistani education campaigner Malala Yousafzai, with Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel, British actress and equal rights campaigner Emma Watson and US comedian Ellen DeGeneres also making an appearance.
 
Pollsters YouGov quizzed more than 25,000 people in 23 countries for the survey, with Angelina Jolie listed as the world's most admired woman.
 
The actress, who previously built a career as one of the highest-paid film stars in Hollywood, has also made a name promoting humanitarian causes, including serving as a Special Envoy for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
 
Top ten women admired by Swedes
 
1. Malala Yousafzai 12.3
 
2. Crown Princess Victoria 10.8
 
3. Aung San Suu Kyi
 
4. Angela Merkel
 
5. Oprah Winfrey
 
6. Hillary Clinton
 
7. Margot Wallström
 
8. Ellen DeGeneres
 
9. Gudrun Schyman
 
10. Emma Watson
 

Zlatan is first Swede on the list of men admired by Swedes. Photo: TT
 
Topping the list of men Swedes most admire, was the Dalai Lama, while Bill Gates came second. Since retiring as chairman of Microsoft, Gates has donated billions of dollars of his wealth to causes like expanding educational opportunity and eliminating extreme poverty around the world, mostly through a foundation he founded with his wife, Melinda Gates.
 
The first Swede on the list was national and PSG footballer Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who came in at number five.
 
Jimmie Åkesson, the leader of the nationalist Sweden Democrats, came sixth, three places above Sweden's former Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt. The country's current Social Democrat leader Stefan Löfven did not make the top ten.
 
In neighbouring Denmark, Barack Obama and the country's Crown Princess were the man and woman Danes most admired in the world.
 
Top ten men admired by Swedes
 
1. The Dalai Lama
 
2. Bill Gates
 
3. Stephen Hawking
 
4. Barack Obama
 
5. Zlatan Ibrahimovic
 
6. Jimmie Åkesson
 
7. Edward Snowden
 
8. Anders Borg
 
9. Fredrik Reinfeldt
 
10. Pope Francis 

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