Jennifer Lawrence and Chloë Grace Moretz have been named by IMDb as the most popular actors in the world, a day after the New York Film Academy published new evidence of widening gender inequality in Hollywood.

Based on page views by the IMDb's 160 million users, Lawrence emerged as the most popular star, thanks largely to her best actress Oscar win in March for Silver Linings Playbook and her leading role in the dystopian blockbuster The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. Sixteen-year-old Moretz has appeared in two big movies this year, the comic-book sequel Kick Ass 2 and the horror remake Carrie.

The young women are of more interest to IMDb users than more established male stars. Leonardo DiCaprio and Johnny Depp, who are among the best-paid Hollywood actors, rank at third and seventh in IMDb's chart respectively. However, neither Robert Downey Jr, last year's highest paid star, nor Tom Cruise, who topped Forbes magazine's list of the best-paid actors in Hollywood in 2011, appear in the IMDb top 10.

The IMDb list casts the Hollywood star payment system in an ironic light. The New York Film Academy (NYFA) report highlights Forbes magazine's annual rundown of the best paid actors. This ranks only one woman, Angelina Jolie, in the top 10. Of the 16 biggest single-film pay cheques earned by actors, not one went to a woman.

Such inequalities are indicative of wider gender differences in pay and representation throughout the industry. The NYFA suggests that fewer than one in 10 Hollywood directors is a woman, while around three in 20 writers are female. Overall there is a five to one ratio of men to women working in Hollywood. Only a third of speaking characters in Hollywood movies are female, and only 10% of films feature a gender-balanced cast – even though around half of cinemagoers are female.

On screen, women are more likely to be wearing sexually revealing clothes than men. The report suggests just over a quarter of female characters get at least partially naked on screen, compared with just under a tenth of male characters.

When films are directed or written by women, the number of female characters jumps, by 10.7% and 8.6% respectively.

Interest in gender inequality in film appears to be growing. A group of French feminists and film-makers wrote to organisers of the Cannes film festival last year, complaining that all 22 films in competition for the 2012 Palme d'Or had been made by men. Only one woman has ever won the Palme d'Or: Jane Campion for The Piano (1993).

Top 10 most viewed actors on IMDb in 2013



1. Jennifer Lawrence

2. Chloë Grace Moretz

3. Leonardo DiCaprio

4. Ryan Gosling

5. Tom Hardy

6. Anna Kendrick

7. Johnny Depp

8. Henry Cavill

9. Chris Hemsworth

10. Benedict Cumberbatch

Top 10 emerging stars of 2013

1. Charlie Hunnam (No 14 overall)

2. Nicholas Hoult (No 26 overall)

3. Paul Walker (No 61 overall)

4. Shailene Woodley (No 64 overall)

5. Aaron Paul (No 66 overall)

6. Karl Urban (No 69 overall)

7. Logan Lerman (No 73 overall)

8. Rebel Wilson (No 75 overall)

9. Natalie Dormer (No 85 overall)

10. Dave Franco (No 86 overall)

Paul Walker, one of the emerging stars in IMDb's page-view chart, died on 30 November.