← Fame through time2016
2016
Who the world actually read about in 2016 - readers across every language edition we measure, whoever they were and whenever they lived.
Most read
Who people actually looked up in 2016, across every language edition we measure.
- 1
Donald Trump81.8M - 2
David Bowie21.2M - 3
Pablo Escobar20.5M - 4
Melania Trump20.2M - 5
Hillary Clinton19.1M - 6
Elizabeth II18.3M - 7
Muhammad Ali17.7M - 8
Barack Obama17.5M - 9
Cristiano Ronaldo15.7M - 10
Leonardo DiCaprio15.3M - 11
Carrie Fisher15M - 12
Lionel Messi14.9M - 13
O. J. Simpson14.2M - 14
Ivanka Trump13.8M - 15
Bernie Sanders12.8M - 16
Michael Phelps12.3M - 17
Adolf Hitler12.3M - 18
Dwayne Johnson11.9M - 19
Alan Rickman11.6M - 20
Stephen Hawking11M - 21
Stephen Curry10.7M - 22
Ronald Reagan10.5M - 23
Bill Clinton10.4M - 24
Margot Robbie10.4M - 25
George Michaelnot measured10.3M
Lived then
The most notable people whose working lives fell in 2016, ranked where coverage and readership agree.
- 1
Natalie Portman2 decades - 2
Beyoncé2 decades - 3
Zlatan Ibrahimović0 decades - 4
Serena Williams2 decades - 5
Britney Spears2 decades - 6
Roger Federer2 decades - 7
Jessica Alba2 decades - 8
Chris Evansnot measured- - 9Ivanka Trump1 decades
- 10
Meghan, Duchess of Sussexnot measured- - 11
Rami Malek0 decades - 12
Xabi Alonso1 decades - 13
Justin Timberlake2 decades - 14
Nayib Bukelenot measured- - 15
Paris Hilton2 decades - 16
Tulsi Gabbard0 decades - 17
Fernando Alonsonot measured- - 18
Tom Hiddleston0 decades - 19
Elijah Woodnot measured- - 20
Sienna Miller0 decades - 21
Alicia Keys2 decades - 22
Anna Kournikova1 decades - 23
Joseph Gordon-Levitt0 decades - 24
Péter Magyarnot measured- - 25
Alexis Bledel0 decades - 26
Michael Carrick0 decades - 27
Samuel Eto'o2 decades - 28
Jared Kushner1 decades - 29
Bryce Dallas Howard0 decades - 30
Julia Stiles1 decades - 31
Hayden Christensen0 decades - 32
Sunny Leone0 decades - 33
Jennifer Hudson1 decades - 34
Pitbullnot measured- - 35
Iker Casillas1 decades - 36
Anton Yelchin0 decades - 37
Chad Michael Murray0 decades - 38
Amy Leenot measured- - 39
David Villa1 decades - 40
Andrey Arshavin2 decades - 41
Adriana Lima0 decades - 42
Shahid Kapoor0 decades - 43
PewDiePie0 decades - 44
Peter Crouch0 decades - 45
Christina Grimmie0 decades - 46
Fan Bingbing2 decades - 47
Dima Bilan2 decades - 48
Anushka Shettynot measured- - 49
Kelly Rowland0 decades - 50
Enzo Marescanot measured- - 51
Mahendra Singh Dhoni0 decades - 52
Krysten Ritter0 decades - 53
Rachel Bilson0 decades - 54
Patrice Evra0 decades - 55
Josh Groban0 decades - 56
Amy Schumer1 decades - 57
Serdar Berdimuhamedownot measured- - 58
Stephen Amell0 decades - 59
Dimitar Berbatov0 decades - 60
Song Hye-kyo0 decades - 61
Kunal Nayyar0 decades - 62
Markiplier0 decades - 63
Park Ji-Sung0 decades - 64
Kseniya Sobchak2 decades - 65
Djibril Cissé2 decades - 66
Michelle Dockery0 decades - 67
Lleyton Hewitt0 decades - 68
Nemanja Vidić0 decades - 69
Kolo Touré0 decades - 70
Josh Gad0 decades - 71
Esha Deol0 decades - 72
Emilie de Ravin0 decades - 73
Candace Owensnot measured- - 74
Nicole Richie1 decades - 75
Dia Mirza0 decades - 76
Carrie Coonnot measured- - 77
Ben Barnesnot measured- - 78
Owen Hargreaves0 decades - 79
Jun Ji-hyun0 decades - 80
Natasha Bedingfield0 decades - 81
Ruth Negga0 decades - 82
Amrita Rao0 decades - 83
Joe Colenot measured- - 84
Taylor Kitschnot measured- - 85
Summer Glau0 decades - 86
Flávio Bolsonaronot measured- - 87
Alessandra Ambrosio0 decades - 88
Gareth Barry0 decades - 89
Catalina Sandino Moreno0 decades - 90
Felipe Massa0 decades - 91
Georges St-Pierrenot measured- - 92
Uzo Adubanot measured- - 93
Guillaume V, Grand Duke of Luxembourgnot measured- - 94
Brandi Carlilenot measured- - 95
Christina Milian0 decades - 96
Javier Saviola0 decades - 97
Anoushka Shankar0 decades - 98
Bryan Danielson0 decades - 99
Rupert Friendnot measured- - 100
Zara Tindall0 decades
How to read these rankings
- Attention, not reputation. A place on these lists reflects the attention a person still draws in the public record. It is not a judgement on the life.
- Fame in print. The curves show how often a name appeared in the books of each decade from 1800 to 2019, drawn from the Google Books Ngram corpus.
- Gaps are left as gaps. Where the record is too thin to be fair, we would rather show nothing than guess.