Bill Gates and Angelina Jolie are the world’s most admired people, according to an annual study compiled by YouGov.

The Microsoft founder and actor-turned-humanitarian have topped the list every year since since 2015 when single sex categories were introduced.

The list features 20 men and 20 women, all of whom are chosen as a result of online interviews with more than 37,000 people in 35 countries.

Jolie has been the most admired woman in YouGov's list for the past three years (Getty Images)

Following on from Gates in the male list is Barack Obama, with a 9.7 per cent share of admiration, followed by Jackie Chan and Xi Jinping.

Meanwhile Michelle Obama and Oprah Winfrey follow on from Jolie in the female list.

The majority of women featured hail from the entertainment industry, with Taylor Swift, Madonna, Priyanka Chopra, Liu Yifei and Gal Gadot all making an appearance. However, notable political figures, such as Hillary Clinton and Angela Merkel, also feature in the top 10.

The male list is predominantly occupied by those from business and sporting backgrounds and includes Elon Musk, Christiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, Warren Buffet and David Beckham.

Political figures also feature heavily; in addition to Obama, the list contains Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump.

(YouGov (YouGov)

Amongst those who have risen significantly in ranking since last year’s list is Emma Watson, who was just 13th in 2016 and comes in sixth place this year.

Taylor Swift has also gone from 14th to ninth place since then.

YouGov also drew up a comparison chart to show how Obama and Trump rank globally in admiration percentage compared to other famous people in the list of most admired men.

In this year's list, Trump is 15 places lower than his Presidential predecessor, with Obama succeeding him in almost every country bar Russia.

(YouGov (YouGov)

YouGov’s data has also been split into local categories, allowing users to see which figures proved most popular in their country.

In the UK, the most admired man is David Attenborough, with an admiration score of 16.6 per cent, whereas the most admired woman is Queen Elizabeth II, with a score of 19.6 per cent.