Norwegians admire King Harald most in world
The Local - [email protected] • 3 Feb, 2015 Updated Tue 3 Feb 2015 13:52 CEST
Norwegians admire King Harald more than any other man, a new survey by the pollsters YouGov has revealed, with the country ranking their monarch above such luminaries as Bill Gates, Barack Obama, Pope Francis and the Dalai Lama.
For Norwegian women, it seems the best way to win the adulation of your countrymen is to take to the trails in winter.
Cross country skiers Marit Bjørgen and Therese Joahaug were the two most admired Norwegian women according to the survey, taking second place and fourth place respectively after Pakistani education activist and Nobel Prize winner Malala Yousafzai, who was their most admired in the world.
The force of Norwegians' love for their royals is nothing new, and is often put down to the unifying role exiled King Haakon VII played for the nation during the country's occupation by Nazi Germany between 1940 and 1945.
Norway was the only country apart from the UK to place a reigning monarch in the top position, although Denmark ranked their Crown Prince Mary as their most admired woman, followed by Queen Margarethe.
Notably, King Carl XVI Gustaf, regarded as a source of embarrassment by many Swedes, failed to make it into his country's list of admired men. Crown Princess Viktoria was however Sweden's second most admired woman after Malala Yousafzai.
YouGov interviewed more than 25,000 people in 23 countries for the survey. Hollywood star Angelina Jolie came out as the world's most admired woman, beating Yousafzai by quite some margin. Billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates was the world's most admired man.
One of the stranger results was the strong showing of Hong Kong film actor Jackie Chan, who was ranked the fourth most admired man in the world.
The other Norwegians to feature in the country's top ten lists were: Gro Harlem Brundtland, the former prime minister, who was the fifth most admired woman; Nato leader Jens Stoltenberg, who was the fifth most admired man; reigning prime minister Erna Solberg, who was the tenth most admired woman; and chess grand master Magnus Carlsen, who was the eighth most admired man.
#royalty