What does it take to be admired? It's a question many of us have pondered in our lives. We all want to leave behind some kind of legacy, to be thought of as admirable by other people.

But who amongst us is held in the greatest esteem? Well, if a new poll is to be believed, then the most-admired person in the world is former President of the United States, Barack Obama himself.

The data comes courtesy of an annual poll collated by YouGov, the results of which were released to the public last week.

The former Democrat president managed to unseat regular first-place winner Microsoft founder Bill Gates for the first time since the annual survey began back in 2014.

However, Obama's spouse and former First Lady, Michelle Obama, managed to achieve an arguably better accolade, after she was named the most-admired woman in the world for the second year in a row.

According to YouGov, their results are calculated from the combination of responses to two questions. The first question is whether the respondent admires the figure at all, and the second question is whether they're the figure the respondent admires most, with the results then scaled to better reflect the population size of each country surveyed.

However, it's clear that Obama doesn't have much admiration for President Donald Trump, who only came 15th in the poll, after slamming him on the third night of the Democratic National Convention.

In a damning speech, Obama stated:

"Donald Trump hasn't grown into the job because he can't. And the consequences of that failure are severe.

"170,000 Americans dead. Millions of jobs gone while those at the top take in more than ever. Our worst impulses unleashed, our proud reputation around the world badly diminished, and our democratic institutions threatened like never before."

In the United Kingdom, Queen Elizabeth II topped the list as the most-admired woman in Britain, while renowned documentary filmmaker Sir David Attenborough was named the most admired man.

What does it take to be admired? It's a question many of us have pondered in our lives. We all want to leave behind some kind of legacy, to be thought of as admirable by other people.

But who amongst us is held in the greatest esteem? Well, if a new poll is to be believed, then the most-admired person in the world is former President of the United States, Barack Obama himself.

The data comes courtesy of an annual poll collated by YouGov, the results of which were released to the public last week.

The former Democrat president managed to unseat regular first-place winner Microsoft founder Bill Gates for the first time since the annual survey began back in 2014.

However, Obama's spouse and former First Lady, Michelle Obama, managed to achieve an arguably better accolade, after she was named the most-admired woman in the world for the second year in a row.

According to YouGov, their results are calculated from the combination of responses to two questions. The first question is whether the respondent admires the figure at all, and the second question is whether they're the figure the respondent admires most, with the results then scaled to better reflect the population size of each country surveyed.

However, it's clear that Obama doesn't have much admiration for President Donald Trump, who only came 15th in the poll, after slamming him on the third night of the Democratic National Convention.

In a damning speech, Obama stated:

"Donald Trump hasn't grown into the job because he can't. And the consequences of that failure are severe.

"170,000 Americans dead. Millions of jobs gone while those at the top take in more than ever. Our worst impulses unleashed, our proud reputation around the world badly diminished, and our democratic institutions threatened like never before."

In the United Kingdom, Queen Elizabeth II topped the list as the most-admired woman in Britain, while renowned documentary filmmaker Sir David Attenborough was named the most admired man.