What do Lady Gaga and David Cameron have in common? Julian Assange and Steve Jobs? Jacob Zuma and Angelina Jolie? They all have world-changing potential. And they are new entries in our annual list of the individuals who have global influence – for good or ill.

The New Statesman 50 People Who Matter 2010 are:

1. (2) Rupert Murdoch

2. (1) Barack Obama

3. (-) Mahmoud Ahmedinijad

4. (10) Xi Jinping

5. (-) Steve Jobs

6. (26) Pope Benedict XVI

7. (24) Ashfaq Kayani

8. (12) Angela Merkel

9. (4) Eric Schmidt, Larry Page & Sergey Brin

10. (44) Hugo Chavez

11. (-) Binyamin Netanyahu

12. (12) David Petraeus

13. (-) Sarah Palin

14. (-) Craig Venter

15. (-) David Cameron

16. (13) Bill Gates

17. (-) Felipe Calderon

18. (-) Khaled Meshal

19. (25) Warren Buffett

20. (7) Vladimir Putin

21. (8) Osama bin Laden

22. (-) Angelina Jolie

23. (-) Julian Assange

24. (-) Lloyd Blankfein

25. (-) Hillary Clinton

26. (-) Mark Zuckerberg

27. (-) Ratan Tata

28. (-) Stephenie Meyer

29. (31) Sonia Gandhi

30. (-) James Cameron

31. (28) Ingvar Kamprad

32. (-) Stephen McIntyre

33. (-) Moqtada al-Sadr

34. (-) Aung San Suu Kyi

35. (-) Margaret Chan

36. (-) Jacob Zuma

37. (-) Bob Diamond

38. (35) Oprah Winfrey

39. (-) Paul Krugman

40. (36) Mohammed Yunus

41. (34) Simon Cowell

42. (-) Zaha Hadid

43. (22) Amartya Sen

44. (-) Lady Gaga

45. (6) Malalai Joya

46. (-) John Lasseter

47. (-) Julia Gillard

48. (-) Han Han

49. (14) Paul Kagame

50. (-) Caster Semenya

Previous year's ranking in brackets, with (-) denoting a new entry.

Entries compiled by Caroline Crampton, Ollie Cussen, George Eaton, Sophie Elmhirst, Mehdi Hasan, James Macintyre, Patrick Osgood, Nick Petrie, Duncan Robinson, Samira Shackle and Daniel Trilling.

All photos by Getty Images.