If you only follow the news in your own country, you’d be forgiven for assuming every leader on Earth is wildly unpopular and clinging to office by their fingernails. But zoom out, and the picture gets stranger and a lot more interesting. A handful of leaders are sitting on approval ratings most politicians can only dream of, while others are scraping along with numbers so low they’d struggle to win a popularity contest in their own household.
So who’s actually winning hearts in 2026, who’s getting booed off the stage, and what does the whole map tell us about the global mood? Grab a coffee. This one’s a fun ride.
First, how do we even measure this?
Most of the figures below come from Morning Consult’s Global Leader Approval Rating Tracker, which quietly takes the temperature of public opinion in dozens of countries every single day, then reports a rolling seven-day average so a single bad news cycle doesn’t whipsaw the numbers.
Two things are worth knowing before we dive in. First, the tracker follows **democratically elected leaders** across roughly 43 countries. You won’t find the heads of one-party states or absolute monarchies on this particular list, because there’s no reliable, comparable way to “poll” approval where free polling doesn’t really exist. Second, the most useful number isn’t always raw approval — it’s *net* approval, meaning approval minus disapproval. A leader can have 40 percent approval and still be in deep trouble if 55 percent actively disapprove. That gap is where the real story lives.
The most popular: a tiny, exclusive club
Here’s the headline that surprises people most: across the world’s major democracies, only a *handful* of leaders are genuinely net-positive — more people approve than disapprove. Analysts have started calling them something like a “popularity seven,” and getting into that club is rare air right now.
Leading the entire pack, as he has for years, is **India’s Narendra Modi**, with approval around 68 to 70 percent and one of the widest approval-minus-disapproval margins on the planet. That’s a genuinely enormous number when you consider he’s deep into a third term, the stage of a political career where most leaders’ shine has long since worn off. His staying power comes down to a potent mix of economic messaging and a strong nationalist appeal that keeps landing with a huge slice of the Indian electorate.
Behind him come several other leaders who sit comfortably in net-positive territory. In the Czech Republic, Andrej Babiš has returned to the top job after a fresh election win and is riding a strong approval margin. South Korea’s Lee Jae-myung is also comfortably net-positive, benefiting from the goodwill that often follows a clear electoral mandate. In Japan, Sanae Takaichi is polling unusually well by historical standards, especially notable in a country where prime ministers often lose public support quickly. Switzerland’s Guy Parmelin benefits from a political system built on stability and low drama, where “calm competence” tends to play extremely well with voters. Argentina’s Javier Milei remains net-positive despite implementing some of the most aggressive economic reforms in the world, showing that bold disruption can be rewarded when it matches what voters signed up for. Canada’s Mark Carney also holds relatively solid net approval, which is increasingly rare among Western leaders.
The pattern is fairly consistent. Voters tend to reward either boring, steady competence or dramatic, decisive change. It is the leaders stuck in the middle — managing without a strong narrative — who tend to struggle most.
The wildcards measured a different way
You will sometimes see two other names near the top of global popularity discussions: El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele and Russia’s Vladimir Putin. Bukele is often reported with approval ratings above 90 percent, while Putin is frequently cited near 80 percent.
These figures are best treated cautiously because they come from different polling environments than those used for democratic-leader comparisons. In countries where media freedom is limited or opposition politics is heavily constrained, very high approval ratings can be difficult to interpret cleanly. They may reflect genuine popularity, fear of speaking openly, or a mix of both. For that reason, they are usually considered separately rather than placed in the same ranking.
The most unpopular: it’s brutal at the top of the rich world
Now for the twist that catches many people off guard: some of the world’s wealthiest democracies are home to its least popular leaders.
France’s Emmanuel Macron sits near the bottom of the global rankings, with approval around 16 to 18 percent and disapproval close to 78 percent, meaning roughly four people disapprove for every one who approves. Germany’s Friedrich Merz is not far ahead, polling in the low-to-mid 20s with similarly high disapproval levels, a difficult position so soon after a closely watched election win. In the United Kingdom, Keir Starmer sits in the mid-20s, with his early honeymoon period long since faded. Spain’s Pedro Sánchez also appears in this low-performing group, and Japan’s previous prime minister occupied similar territory before the recent political reshuffle.
What stands out is that several of these leaders govern G7 economies. The common thread is not incompetence in any simple sense, but persistent pressure from issues like inflation, housing costs, immigration debates, and a general sense that daily life is not improving quickly enough. Wealth and global influence, it seems, do not translate into public satisfaction.
And the surprising middle
A large number of major political figures sit in a broad, lukewarm middle rather than at either extreme.
In the United States, Donald Trump typically hovers around the low-to-mid 40s in approval, keeping him underwater overall but not in crisis territory. Italy’s Giorgia Meloni sits near 40 percent, which is relatively stable by Italian political standards. Mexico’s Claudia Sheinbaum often splits opinion almost evenly, landing close to break-even. Australia’s Anthony Albanese and Brazil’s Lula da Silva move up and down within a similar middle band depending on economic news and political cycles.
This middle zone is, in fact, the global norm. True popularity is rare, and sustained enthusiasm even rarer.
So why are so few leaders popular?
It is tempting to conclude that the world has simply become more cynical, but the data suggests something more specific. Approval does not map neatly onto ideology, with leaders from across the political spectrum appearing at both the top and bottom of the rankings. It also does not correlate cleanly with economic performance alone.
What appears to matter more is whether voters feel their leader is delivering on the issues that affect daily life, or at least offering a convincing sense of direction. The most successful leaders are those who either embody clarity and decisive change or maintain a sense of steady competence that avoids chaos. Those who occupy the middle ground, managing without a strong narrative, tend to struggle.
A few things to keep in mind before the dinner party
Approval ratings are snapshots rather than fixed truths. They can swing quickly in response to events, scandals, or economic shifts. A leader near the bottom today can recover, and a popular one can fall just as fast.
It is also important to remember that countries are not directly comparable. Political culture, electoral systems, and voter expectations vary so widely that a “good” rating in one place may not mean the same thing elsewhere. A fragmented multiparty system produces very different baseline numbers from a two-party system.
Finally, the source of polling matters. Data from competitive democracies carries different weight than figures from more constrained political environments.
Still, as a rough portrait of global political mood, it is revealing. The world today is largely led by figures the public is willing to tolerate rather than adore, with only a small group enjoying genuine enthusiasm and a significant cluster of wealthy-world leaders struggling to maintain even basic approval.
