People are generally more satisfied with business executives than some of the most powerful leaders of the free world.
That’s according to data from the 2018 Best Countries report, based on a survey of more than 21,000 global citizens. Respondents evaluated their approval and disapproval of certain world and business leaders. In the survey, respondents answered whether they strongly or moderately approved or disapproved of the person, or were given the option to select somewhere in between. Survey data does not include respondents who selected “do not know.”
A net approval analysis — found by subtracting the total disapproval rate from the total approval rate — showed that business leaders led on net approval on average, with company CEOs Eric Schmidt (Google), Jeff Bezos (Amazon) and Elon Musk (Tesla and SpaceX) scoring high net approval ratings, boasting higher scores than Angela Merkel of Germany, Emmanuel Macron of France and the United Kingdom‘s Theresa May.
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United States President Donald Trump scored the lowest net approval rating, though he found some controversial company. Russia‘s Vladimir Putin and the often-foul-mouthed Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines also landed among the lowest net approvals.
Find the total global approval and disapproval ratings of selected business and world leaders, ordered by net approval, below.
| Person | Company or Country | Approve | Disapprove |
| Eric Schmidt | Alphabet Inc. (Google), Executive Chairman | 65% | 10% |
| Jeff Bezos | Amazon, CEO and The Washington Post, Owner | 63% | 11% |
| Justin Trudeau | Canada | 63% | 12% |
| Elon Musk | Tesla, CEO and SpaceX, CEO | 62% | 11% |
| Tim Cook | Apple Inc., CEO | 62% | 12% |
| Mark Zuckerberg | Facebook, CEO | 61% | 15% |
| Jack Ma | Alibaba Group, Founder and Executive Chairman | 56% | 14% |
| Angela Merkel | Germany, Chancellor | 56% | 20% |
| Emmanuel Macron | France, President | 51% | 17% |
| Theresa May | United Kingdom, Prime Minister | 42% | 26% |
| Xi Jinping | Communist Party of China, General Secretary | 34% | 35% |
| Vladimir Putin | Russia, President | 34% | 44% |
| Rodrigo Duterte | Philippines, President | 29% | 40% |
| Donald Trump | United States, President | 25% | 58% |
Note: Approval and disapproval percentages reflect rounding.
Additional country-related rankings can be found here.
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People Around the World Approve of Company CEOs More Than World Leaders originally appeared on usnews.com
