| Person of the Year | |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Presented by | Time |
| Formerly called |
|
| First award | 1927; 99 years ago (1927) |
| Currently held by | "The Architects of AI" (2025) |
| Website | https://www.time.com/poy  |
Person of the Year, calledMan of the Year orWoman of the Year until 1999,[1] is an annual issue of the Americannews magazine and websiteTime featuring a person, group, idea, or object that "for better or for worse ... has done the most to influence the events of the year".[2] TheTime website or a partner organization also runs an annual online reader's poll that has no effect on the selection, although no poll was held in 2023 or 2024.[3][4]
The tradition of selecting a "Man of the Year" began privately in 1927, withTime editors contemplating the news makers of the year after a series of "slow news days" leading up to New Year's Day.[4] The idea originally focused on a Man of the Week before it was decided to useCharles Lindbergh to represent the predominant story of 1927, with the magazine listing him as Man of the Year being published in early 1928.[4] The idea was also an attempt to remedy the editorial embarrassment earlier that year of not having aviator Lindbergh on its cover following his historictransatlantic flight.[4] By the end of the year, it was decided that a cover story featuring Lindbergh as the Man of the Year would serve both purposes.[5] Before the online poll was instituted, "readers were invited to weigh in by mail."[4]
Since the list began, every serving president of the United States has been a Man or Person of the Year at least once, with the exceptions ofCalvin Coolidge (in office at the time of the first issue),Herbert Hoover (the subsequent president), andGerald Ford (the only president never to have been elected to the office of president or vice president). Most were named Man or Person of the Year either the year they were elected or while they were in office; the only one to be given the title before being elected wasDwight D. Eisenhower, in 1944, asSupreme Commander of the Allied Invasion Force, eight years before his first election. He received the title again in 1959 while in office.Franklin D. Roosevelt became the first chosen US president and is the only person to have received the title three times, first aspresident-elect (1932) and later as the incumbent president (1934 and 1941). Below is a list of all countries' heads of state or government to have been chosen as Man, Woman, or Person of the Year (arranged in chronological order by country name, from the most frequently selected).
Winston Churchill was chosen a second time for the special "Man of the Half-Century" edition in 1949 while serving asLeader of the Opposition before his second premiership;Charles de Gaulle was chosen while being electedPresident of France beforeformally taking office;Lech Wałęsa andNelson Mandela were chosen before being electedPresident of Poland andPresident of South Africa, respectively.
Before 1999, four women were granted the title as individuals: three as "Woman of the Year"—Wallis Simpson (1936),Queen Elizabeth II (1952), andCorazon Aquino (1986)—and one as half of "Man and Wife of the Year",Soong Mei-ling (jointly withChiang Kai-shek) in 1937.[6] "American Women" were recognized as a group in 1975. Other classes of people recognized comprise both men and women, such as "Hungarian Freedom Fighters" (1956), "U.S. Scientists" (1960), "The Inheritors" (1966), "The Middle Americans" (1969), "The American Soldier" (1950 and 2003), "You" (2006), "The Protester" (2011), and "Ebola Fighters" (2014). However, the title on the magazine remained "Man of the Year" for both the 1956 "Hungarian Freedom Fighter" and the 1966 "Twenty-five and Under" editions which both featured a woman standing behind a man, and "Men of the Year" on the 1960 "U.S. Scientists" edition which exclusively featured men on its cover. It was not until the 1969 edition on "The Middle Americans" that the title embraced "Man and Woman of the Year".
In 1999, the title was changed to thegender-neutral "Person of the Year" (its first recipient under the new name beingJeff Bezos ofAmazon.com).[7] Women who have been selected for recognition after the renaming include "The Whistleblowers" (Cynthia Cooper,Coleen Rowley, andSherron Watkins) in 2002;Melinda Gates (jointly withBill Gates andBono) in 2005;Angela Merkel (2015);"The Silence Breakers" (2017);Greta Thunberg (2019);Kamala Harris (jointly withJoe Biden) in 2020;Taylor Swift (2023); and"The Architects of AI" (among whomFei-Fei Li andLisa Su) in 2025. To celebrateInternational Women's Day in 2020,Time editors released 89 new magazine covers, each showing women, in addition to the 11 already chosen, as counterparts to the Man of the Year choices from the past century.[8] Since 2022,Time has awarded a separate "Women of the Year" title to a number of women each year, in a similar fashion toTime 100.[9]
Despite the name, the title is not just granted to individuals. Pairs of people such as married couples and political opponents, classes of people, and inanimate objects have all been selected for the special year-end issue.
Multiple named people
Classes of unnamed people
Inanimate objects
Abstract concepts
In 1949,Winston Churchill was named Man of the Half-Century,[10] and the last issue of 1989 namedMikhail Gorbachev as "Man of the Decade".[11] The December 31, 1999 issue ofTime namedAlbert Einstein the "Person of the Century".[12] BothFranklin D. Roosevelt andMahatma Gandhi were chosen as runners-up.[13] Aside from Einstein, the December 31 edition also named Persons of the Century for every century of the2nd millennium:William the Conqueror for the 11th century,Saladin for the 12th century,Genghis Khan for the 13th century,Giotto for the 14th century,Johannes Gutenberg for the 15th century,Elizabeth I for the 16th century,Isaac Newton for the 17th century,Thomas Jefferson for the 18th century, andThomas Edison for the 19th century.[14]
Despite the magazine's frequent statements to the contrary, the designation is often regarded as an honor and spoken of as an award or prize, simply based on many previous selections of admirable people.[15]Time observes that controversial figures such asAdolf Hitler (1938),Joseph Stalin (1939 and 1942),Nikita Khrushchev (1957), andAyatollah Khomeini (1979) have also been granted the title for their impact on events.[16] Nevertheless, as a result of the cancellation of subscriptions from the American audience for naming Khomeini Man of the Year in 1979, following theIran hostage crisis, the magazine's editors have since shied away from using figures who are controversial in the United States, fearing reductions in sales or advertising revenue.[17]
Time's Person of the Year for 2001, immediately following theSeptember 11 attacks, wasRudy Giuliani, who wasmayor of New York City at the time of the attacks.[18] The stated rules of selection—the individual or group of individuals who have had the bigger influence on the year's events—madeOsama bin Laden the more likely choice that year; however, Giuliani was selected for symbolizing the American response to the attacks, in the same way that Albert Einstein was selected Person of the Century for representing a century of scientific exploration and wonder instead of Adolf Hitler, who was arguably a stronger candidate.[19]
In 1941, the fictional elephant Dumbo fromWalt Disney'sanimated film of the same name was selected to be "Mammal of the Year", and a cover was created showing thetitle character in a formal portrait style. However, theattack on Pearl Harbor on December 7 pre-empted the cover. The U.S. president Franklin Delano Roosevelt was named Man of the Year for a record third time, although Dumbo's Mammal of the Year profile still appeared on the inside pages of the magazine.[20]
FilmmakerMichael Moore claims that directorMel Gibson cost him the opportunity to be Person of the Year alongside Gibson in 2004. Moore's controversial political documentaryFahrenheit 9/11 became the highest-grossing documentary of all time the same year Gibson'sThe Passion of the Christ became a box-office success and also caused significant controversy. Moore said in an interview "I got a call right after the '04 election from an editor from Time Magazine. He said,' Time Magazine has picked you and Mel Gibson to be Time's Person of the Year to put on the cover, Right and Left, Mel and Mike. The only thing you have to do is pose for a picture with each other. And do an interview together.' I said 'OK.' They call Mel up, he agrees. They set the date and time in LA. I'm to fly there. He's flying from Australia. Something happens when he gets home ... Next thing, Mel calls up and says, 'I'm not doing it. I've thought it over and it is not the right thing to do.' So they put Bush on the cover."[21]
U.S. presidentDonald Trump claimed on Twitter in November 2017 thatTime editors had told him he would "probably" be named Person of the Year for a second time, conditional on an interview andphoto shoot, which he had refused.Time denied that they had made any such promises or conditions to Trump, who was named a runner-up.[22]
| Year | Image | Choice | Lifetime | Notes | Runners-up |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1927 |  | Charles Lindbergh | 1902–1974 | Lindbergh completed the first solotransatlantic flight in May 1927 by piloting his monoplaneSpirit of St. Louis fromGarden City, New York toParis, France. | Time did not release a shortlist. |
| 1928 |  | Walter Chrysler | 1875–1940 | In 1928, Chrysler oversaw a merger of his company,Chrysler, withDodge before beginning work on theChrysler Building. | |
| 1929 |  | Owen D. Young | 1874–1962 | Young chaired a committee which authored 1929'sYoung Plan, a program for settlement of Germanreparations afterWorld War I. | |
| 1930 |  | Mahatma Gandhi | 1869–1948 | Gandhi was the leader ofIndia's independence movement. In 1930, he led theSalt Satyagraha, a 240-mile march to protest the imposition of taxes on salt by theBritish Raj. | |
| 1931 |  | Pierre Laval | 1883–1945 | Laval was first appointedPrime Minister of France in 1931. He was popular in the American press at the time for opposing theHoover Moratorium, a temporary freeze on World War I debt payments that was disliked in both France and the US.[23] | |
| 1932 |  | Franklin D. Roosevelt | 1882–1945 | Roosevelt won the1932 US presidential election by a landslide, defeating the incumbent,Herbert Hoover. | |
| 1933 |  | Hugh S. Johnson | 1882–1942 | In 1933, Johnson was appointed director of theNational Recovery Administration. US President Franklin D. Roosevelt gave him the task of bringing industry, labor and government together to create codes of "fair practices" and set prices. | |
| 1934 |  | Franklin D. Roosevelt (2) | 1882–1945 | Roosevelt was President of the United States from 1933 to 1945. In 1934, Roosevelt'sNew Deal reforms were beginning to bring results. | |
| 1935 |  | Haile Selassie | 1892–1975 | Selassie wasEmperor of Ethiopia in 1935, when Italian forces invaded Ethiopia, starting theSecond Italo-Abyssinian War. | |
| 1936 | .jpg) | Wallis Simpson | 1896–1986 | In 1936, Simpson's relationship with KingEdward VIII of the United Kingdom led the king toabdicate the throne to marry her. | |
| 1937 | .jpg) | Chiang Kai-shek | 1887–1975 | Chiang wasPremier of the Republic of China at the outbreak of theSecond Sino-Japanese War in 1937. | |
.jpg) | Soong Mei-ling | 1898–2003 | Soong was wife of Chiang Kai-shek from 1927 until his death in 1975, and was active in rallying support for the Republic of China in the US. Addressed as Madame Chiang Kai-Shek by the magazine, she was recognized together with her husband as "Man & Wife of the Year".[6] | ||
| 1938 |  | Adolf Hitler | 1889–1945 | AsChancellor of Germany, Hitler oversaw the unification of Germany with Austria and theSudetenland in 1938, after theAnschluss andMunich Agreement respectively. Instead of a conventional portrait, the cover was an illustration byRudolph von Ripper entitled "From the unholy organist, a hymn of hate".[24] | |
| 1939 | .jpg) | Joseph Stalin | 1878–1953 | In 1939, Stalin wasGeneral Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union andPremier of the Soviet Union. He oversaw the signing of anon-aggression pact with Nazi Germany beforeinvading eastern Poland. | |
| 1940 | .jpg) | Winston Churchill | 1874–1965 | Churchill wasPrime Minister of the United Kingdom during theDunkirk evacuation and theBattle of Britain. | |
| 1941 | .jpg) | Franklin D. Roosevelt (3) | 1882–1945 | Roosevelt was President of the United States in 1941 during theattack on Pearl Harbor,declaration of war against Japan and resulting entry of the United States intoWorld War II. The editors had already chosenDumbo as their "Mammal of the Year" before the Pearl Harbor attack, but quickly changed it to Roosevelt.[20] | |
| 1942 | | Joseph Stalin (2) | 1878–1953 | By 1942, Stalin was General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union andPremier of the Soviet Union, overseeing theBattle of Stalingrad (1942–1943). | |
| 1943 | .jpg) | George C. Marshall | 1880–1959 | AsUnited States Army Chief of Staff in 1943, General Marshall was instrumental in organizing US actions in World War II. | |
| 1944 | .jpg) | Dwight D. Eisenhower | 1890–1969 | General Eisenhower wasSupreme Allied Commander in Europe during 1944'sOperation Overlord. | |
| 1945 | .jpg) | Harry S. Truman | 1884–1972 | Truman became President of the United States after the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1945, authorizing theatomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. | |
| 1946 |  | James F. Byrnes | 1882–1972 | In 1946, Byrnes wasUnited States Secretary of State during theIran crisis of 1946, taking an increasingly hardline position in opposition to Stalin. His speech, "Restatement of Policy on Germany", set the tone of future US policy, repudiating theMorgenthau Plan economic policies and giving Germans hope for the future. | |
| 1947 | | George C. Marshall (2) | 1880–1959 | Appointed United States Secretary of State in 1947, Marshall was the architect of theMarshall Plan. | |
| 1948 | .jpg) | Harry S. Truman (2) | 1884–1972 | Truman waselected in his own right as President of the United States in 1948, which is considered to be one of the greatest election upsets in American history.[25][26][27] | |
| 1949 | | Winston Churchill (2) | 1874–1965 | Proclaimed as the "Man of the half-century", Churchill had led Britain and the Allies to victory in WWII. In 1949, Churchill wasLeader of the Opposition. | |
| 1950 |  | The American fighting-man | N/a | Representing US troops involved in theKorean War (1950–1953) | |
| 1951 |  | Mohammad Mossadegh | 1882–1967 | In 1951, Mossadegh was appointedPrime Minister of Iran and expelled Western oil companies, starting theAbadan Crisis. | |
| 1952 |  | Elizabeth II | 1926–2022 | In 1952, Elizabethacceded to thethrone of the United Kingdom and the otherCommonwealth realms upon the death of her father, KingGeorge VI. | |
| 1953 |  | Konrad Adenauer | 1876–1967 | In 1953, Adenauer wasre-elected as Chancellor of West Germany. Adenauer was overseeing the reconstruction of Germany and theEconomic Miracle, had successfully restored relations with Germany's wartime enemies in the West, and was working towardsEuropean integration.[28] | |
| 1954 |  | John Foster Dulles | 1888–1959 | As United States Secretary of State in 1954, Dulles was architect of theSoutheast Asia Treaty Organization. | |
| 1955 |  | Harlow Curtice | 1893–1962 | Curtice was President ofGeneral Motors (GM) from 1953 to 1958. In 1955, GM sold five million vehicles and became the first corporation to earn US$1 billion in a single year.[29] | |
| 1956 |  | The Hungarian freedom fighter | N/a | Representing Hungarian revolutionaries involved in the1956 uprising against theSoviet-dominated government, which was put down by theSoviet Army | |
| 1957 |  | Nikita Khrushchev | 1894–1971 | In 1957, Khrushchev consolidated his leadership of the Soviet Union, surviving a plot to dismiss him byStalinist members within thePresidium, and leading the Soviet Union into theSpace Race with the launch ofSputnik 1. | |
| 1958 |  | Charles de Gaulle | 1890–1970 | De Gaulle was appointed Prime Minister of France in May 1958 and, following thecollapse of the Fourth Republic and establishment of theFifth Republic, was thenelected asPresident of France in December. | |
| 1959 |  | Dwight D. Eisenhower (2) | 1890–1969 | Eisenhower was President of the United States from 1953 to 1961. In 1959, Eisenhower arranged thestate visit by Nikita Khrushchev to the United States and toured several countries, becoming the first US president to visit India.[30] | |
| 1960 |  | U.S. Scientists | N/a | Time claimed in 1960 "science is at the apogee of its power for good or evil", although it noted that "the 15 men [on the cover] include two or three whose greatest work is probably behind them". The cover and piece spotlights the following scientists:
| |
| 1961 |  | John F. Kennedy | 1917–1963 | Kennedy wasinaugurated as President of the United States in 1961, ordering the failedinvasion of Cuba by U.S.-trained Cuban exiles. | |
| 1962 |  | John XXIII | 1881–1963 | Pope of theRoman Catholic Church from 1958 to 1963. In 1962, he volunteered as a mediator in theCuban Missile Crisisbetween the U.S. and USSR, gaining praise from both sides. He also initiated theSecond Vatican Council that same year. | |
| 1963 |  | Martin Luther King Jr. | 1929–1968 | A leader of the AmericanCivil rights movement, King delivered his famous "I Have a Dream" speech in 1963. | |
| 1964 |  | Lyndon B. Johnson | 1908–1973 | Johnson waselected in his own right as President of the United States in 1964, secured the passage of theCivil Rights Act, declared awar on poverty, and escalated US involvement in theVietnam War. | |
| 1965 |  | William Westmoreland | 1914–2005 | General Westmoreland wascommander of US forces inSouth Vietnam during the Vietnam War. | |
| 1966 |  | The Inheritor | N/a | Representing a generation of American men and women, aged 25 and under – theBaby Boom generation, who in 1966 made up nearly half the population and were influential both in thecounterculture of the 1960s and as drafted soldiers in the Vietnam War. The face most prominently seen on the cover representing the generation was that ofThomas M. McLaughlin.[32][33] | |
| 1967 | .jpg) | Lyndon B. Johnson (2) | 1908–1973 | Johnson was President of the United States from 1963 to 1969.Time noted that it had been a year of setbacks and failures for Johnson, withrace riots across the US, deepening involvement in the Vietnam War, and theDump Johnson movement within his own party.[34] | |
| 1968 | .jpg) | TheApollo 8astronauts | Frank Borman: 1928–2023 Jim Lovell: 1928–2025 William Anders: 1933–2024 | In 1968, the American crew of Apollo 8 (William Anders,Frank Borman andJim Lovell) became the first humans to travel beyond low Earth orbit, orbiting the Moon and paving the way for the first human Moon landings in 1969. | |
| 1969 |  | TheMiddle Americans | N/a | Conservative, small-town Americans, also referred to as thesilent majority.Time saw Middle America as the driving force behind Richard Nixon's1968 election win, the background of the American astronauts ofApollo 11, and the conservative side of debates on social issues such asschool desegregation,prayer in public schools,sex education anddrugs policy.[35][36] | |
| 1970 |  | Willy Brandt | 1913–1992 | As Chancellor of West Germany, Brandt was acknowledged for "seeking to bring about a fresh relationship between East and West" through his "bold approach to the Soviet Union and the East Bloc". In 1970, Brandt renounced German claims on Poland and recognized East Germany, and acknowledgedthe Holocaust in Nazi-occupied Poland with the symbolicKniefall von Warschau.[37] | |
| 1971 |  | Richard Nixon | 1913–1994 | Nixon was President of the United States from 1969 to 1974. In 1971, Nixon had withdrawn the US dollar from thegold standard, triggering theNixon shock, created theEconomic Stabilization Program, andre-opened relations with communist China.[38] | |
| 1972 | .jpg) | Richard Nixon (2) | 1913–1994 | As President of the United States, Nixonvisited China in 1972, the first U.S. president to do so. Nixon later secured theSALT I pact with the Soviet Union before beingre-elected in one of the largest landslide election victories in American history. | |
 | Henry Kissinger | 1923–2023 | Kissinger, as Nixon'sNational Security Advisor, traveled with the President to China in 1972, and was negotiating peace in the Vietnam War. | ||
| 1973 |  | John Sirica | 1904–1992 | In 1973, as Chief Judge of theUnited States District Court for the District of Columbia, Sirica ordered President Nixon to turn overWatergate-related recordings ofWhite House conversations. | |
| 1974 | .jpg) | Faisal | 1906–1975 | Faisal,King of Saudi Arabia, was acknowledged in the wake of theoil crisis, which arose when Saudi Arabia withdrew its oil from world markets to protest Western support for Israel during theYom Kippur War. | |
| 1975 | .svg) | American women | N/a | Highlighting the successes of the Americanfeminist movement and "the status of the everyday, usually anonymous woman, who moved into the mainstream of jobs, ideas and policy making". The cover and piece spotlights the following women:
| |
| 1976 | .jpg) | Jimmy Carter | 1924–2024 | In 1976, Carter waselected President of the United States, defeating incumbent PresidentGerald Ford. | Time did not release a shortlist. |
| 1977 |  | Anwar Sadat | 1918–1981 | Sadat, asPresident of Egypt, traveled to Israel in 1977—the first Arab leader to do so—to discuss normalization ofrelations of both countries. | |
| 1978 | .jpg) | Deng Xiaoping | 1904–1997 | Deng, asVice Premier, overthrewHua Guofeng toassumede facto control over China in 1978, asParamount leader. | 4
|
| 1979 | Ruhollah Khomeini | 1902–1989 | Khomeini led theIranian Revolution, overthrewShahMohammed Reza Pahlavi, establishing himself asSupreme Leader. | ||
| 1980 |  | Ronald Reagan | 1911–2004 | Reagan waselected President of the United States in 1980, defeating incumbent PresidentJimmy Carter. | |
| 1981 | %2c_FORUM_2000%2c_Prague_(2).jpg) | Lech Wałęsa | Born 1943 | Leader of the PolishSolidarity trade union and architect of theGdańsk Agreement until his arrest by thecommunist authorities and the imposition ofmartial law in Poland in December 1981 | 4
|
| 1982 |  | The Computer | N/a | Denoted "Machine of the Year" to herald the dawn of theInformation Age The feature spotlights the following people, in order:
| |
| 1983 | | Ronald Reagan (2) | 1911–2004 | In 1983, as President of the United States, Reagan ordered theinvasion of Grenada and championed theStrategic Defense Initiative. | |
 | Yuri Andropov | 1914–1984 | Andropov, as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, was a critic of the Strategic Defense Initiative and tried to revivethe stagnating Soviet economy. Andropov was hospitalized in August 1983 and died in 1984. | ||
| 1984 |  | Peter Ueberroth | Born 1937 | Ueberroth orchestrated the organization of the1984 Summer Olympics, which involved aSoviet-led boycott. | 4 |
| 1985 | | Deng Xiaoping (2) | 1904–1997 | As Paramount Leader of China, Deng acknowledged the need for "sweeping economic reforms that have challenged Marxist orthodoxies". In 1985, Deng hadlifted price controls and eased the restrictions on private ownership and business.[59] | 4
|
| 1986 |  | Corazon Aquino | 1933–2009 | Aquino was a prominent figure in 1986'sPeople Power Revolution, beingelectedpresident of the Philippines. | |
| 1987 | .jpg) | Mikhail Gorbachev | 1931–2022 | As general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and leader of the Soviet Union, Gorbachev oversawperestroika andglasnost political reforms in 1987, aimed at liberalizing Soviet society. | |
| 1988 | .jpg) | The Endangered Earth | N/a | Planet of the Year, representing the growingenvironmental movement as well as several natural and ecological disasters that struck in 1988: among them were theNorth American drought, "syringe tide",Bangladeshi cyclone andan earthquake in Armenia, as well asozone depletion,global warming, radioactive contamination anddeforestation.[66] | Time did not release a shortlist. |
| 1989 | | Mikhail Gorbachev (2) | 1931–2022 | Acknowledged as "Man of the Decade". Gorbachev, as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Soviet leader), oversaw 1989'sfirst free Soviet elections in history before the fragmentation of theEastern Bloc andoverthrow of Soviet-dominated communist governments in Eastern Europe. | |
| 1990 | .jpg) | George H. W. Bush | 1924–2018 | As President of the United States, Bush oversaw U.S. involvement in theGulf War (1990–1991). | |
| 1991 | .jpg) | Ted Turner | Born 1938 | Founder ofCNN. The piece particularly highlighted CNN's coverage ofOperation Desert Storm and the Gulf War, proclaiming it "History as it happens". | |
| 1992 |  | Bill Clinton | Born 1946 | Clinton waselected President of the United States in 1992, defeating incumbent PresidentGeorge H. W. Bush. | Time did not release a shortlist. |
| 1993 | .svg) | The Peacemakers | N/a | Represented byYasser Arafat,F. W. de Klerk,Nelson Mandela, andYitzhak Rabin. De Klerk, asState President of South Africa, oversaw Mandela's release from prison in 1990. In 1993, the pair were negotiating the end of theApartheid system, and had just jointly won theNobel Peace Prize. Arafat, asPresident of the Palestinian National Authority, and Rabin, asPrime Minister of Israel, signed the 1993Oslo Accord, the first face-to-face agreement between Palestinian and Israeli authorities. | |
| 1994 | .jpg) | John Paul II | 1920–2005 | Pope of the Roman Catholic Church from 1978 to 2005. In 1994, he had been active in several social debates: he released abook-length interview and the English translation of theCatechism of the Catholic Church, ruled out theordination of women, criticized the promotion of abortion andfamily planning at theCairo Conference, and establishedrelations with Israel.[71] | |
| 1995 | .jpg) | Newt Gingrich | Born 1943 | Leader of the "Republican Revolution", aRepublican Partyelection landslide, which led to Gingrich being electedSpeaker of the House | |
| 1996 | .JPG) | David Ho | Born 1952 | Ho, a scientist, pioneered muchAIDS research. In 1996, he had announced that a medical trial ofcombination therapy had reduced theviral load in HIV-positive patients to levels too low to be measured, changing the disease profile fromterminal to amanageable disease.[72] | |
| 1997 |  | Andrew Grove | 1936–2016 | In 1997, Grove was chairman and CEO ofIntel, recognized as a pioneer in thesemiconductor industry and taken as a representative of theDigital Revolution and thetech boom. | |
| 1998 | | Bill Clinton (2) | Born 1946 | As President of the United States, Clinton wasimpeached in 1998 following theLewinsky scandal. The Senate acquitted him of the charges. | |
 | Ken Starr | 1946–2022 | Starr, a lawyer investigating various figures within the Clinton administration, published hisStarr Report in 1998, opening the door for the impeachment of Bill Clinton. | ||
| 1999 | .jpg) | Jeff Bezos | Born 1964 | Bezos is the founder and was the CEO ofAmazon.com, at that point one of the most successful companies in thedot-com boom. | Time did not release a shortlist for 1999. |
| 2000 | .jpg) | George W. Bush | Born 1946 | In 2000, Bush waselected President of the United States, defeating incumbent Vice PresidentAl Gore. | |
| 2001 |  | Rudy Giuliani | Born 1944 | Giuliani,Mayor of New York City at the time of theSeptember 11 attacks in 2001, was selected as a symbol of America's response to the attacks. | Time did not release a shortlist. |
| 2002 |  | TheWhistleblowers | N/a | Represented byCynthia Cooper,Coleen Rowley, andSherron Watkins. In 2001, Watkins uncoveredaccounting irregularities in the financial reports ofEnron, testifying before Congressional committees the following year. In 2002, Cooper exposed a $3.8 billion fraud atWorldCom. At the time, this was the largest incident of accounting fraud in U.S. history. In 2002, Rowley, anFBI agent, gave testimony about the FBI's mishandling of information related to the September 11 attacks of 2001. | |
| 2003 |  | TheAmerican soldier (2) | N/a | Representing U.S. forces around the world, especially in theIraq War (2003–2011) | |
| 2004 |  | George W. Bush (2) | Born 1946 | In 2004, Bush wasre-elected President of the United States, defeatingJohn Kerry and overseeing US involvement in the Iraq War. | |
| 2005 | .JPG)  | The Good Samaritans | N/a | Represented byBono,Bill Gates, andMelinda Gates. Bono, philanthropist and member of the rock bandU2, helped to organize the 2005Live 8 concerts. Bill Gates, founder ofMicrosoft andrichest person in the world at the time, and his wife Melinda, founded the philanthropicBill & Melinda Gates Foundation. | |
| 2006 | .jpg) | You[76] | N/a | Representingindividual content creators on theWorld Wide Web | |
| 2007 | .jpeg) | Vladimir Putin[78] | Born 1952 | Putin wasPresident of Russia from 2000 to 2008, and from 2012 onwards. In 2007, it was apparent that Putin's power would continue after his presidential term expired: he had suppressed much of the opposition to his rule, including having a suspected role in the 2006assassination of Anna Politkovskaya andpoisoning of Alexander Litvinenko, and had secured his position asPrime Minister of Russia to his loyalist successorDmitry Medvedev. | |
| 2008 |  | Barack Obama[80] | Born 1961 | In 2008, Obama waselected President of the United States, defeatingJohn McCain to become the first African-American President of the United States in January 2009. | |
| 2009 |  | Ben Bernanke[82] | Born 1953 | Chairman of the Federal Reserve during the2008 financial crisis and theGreat Recession | 4
|
| 2010 |  | Mark Zuckerberg[84] | Born 1984 | Founder of the social-networking websiteFacebook. In 2010, Facebook passed half a billion users but was involved in privacy disputes, and Zuckerberg had been the subject of the Oscar-winning biographical filmThe Social Network. | |
| 2011 |  | The Protester[86] | N/a | Recognizing the historic significance of manygrassroots protests across the world during that year, such as theArab Spring which started inTunisia and those against austerity measures inGreece and later inSpain, against corruption inIndia, against the drug war inMexico, for education inChile, for social justice inIsrael, as well as theriots in England, the anti-government protests inRussia and the emerging globalOccupy movement[86] | |
| 2012 | _3.jpg) | Barack Obama (2)[88] | Born 1961 | In 2012, Obama wasre-elected President of the United States, defeatingMitt Romney. | |
| 2013 | .jpg) | Francis[90] | 1936–2025 | Elected Pope of the Roman Catholic Church in 2013, following theresignation ofBenedict XVI | |
| 2014 | .jpg) | Ebola fighters[92] | N/a | "Ebola fighters" refers to health care workers who helped stop the spread of theEbola virus during theEbola virus epidemic in West Africa, including not only doctors and nurses, but also ambulance attendants, burial parties and others.[93] Those represented on the covers included
| |
| 2015 | .jpg) | Angela Merkel | Born 1954 | Chancellor of Germany from 2005 to 2021, recognized for leadership in theGreek debt crisis andEuropean migrant crisis[100] | |
| 2016 | .jpg) | Donald Trump | Born 1946 | In 2016, Trump waselected President of the United States, defeatingHillary Clinton. | |
| 2017 |  | The Silence Breakers | N/a | The people who spoke out against sexual abuse and harassment, including the figureheads of the AmericanMeToo movement. Represented on the cover by strawberry picker Isabel Pascual (pseudonym), lobbyist Adama Iwu, actressAshley Judd, software engineerSusan Fowler, singer-songwriterTaylor Swift, and a sixth woman, a hospital worker who wished to remain anonymous and whose face cannot be seen. The feature also specifically spotlights, in order:
| |
| 2018 |    | The Guardians | N/a | Journalists who faced persecution, arrest or murder for their reporting. Those highlighted on four different covers were:
The feature also spotlights the following journalists, in order:
| |
| 2019 | _(cropped).jpg) | Greta Thunberg | Born 2003 | Swedish environmental activist and founder of theSchool Strike for Climate campaign. In 2019, Thunberg led theGlobal Week for Future with over four million protestors and addressed the2019 UN Climate Action Summit with her "How Dare You" speech.[128] | |
| 2020 | .jpg) | Joe Biden[130] | Born 1942 | In 2020, Biden and Harris wereelected President and Vice President of the United States respectively, defeating incumbent PresidentDonald Trump and Vice PresidentMike Pence.[131] In January 2021, Harris became the first woman, firstAfrican American, and firstAsian American vice president. | 3
|
.jpg) | Kamala Harris[130] | Born 1964 | |||
| 2021 | .jpg) | Elon Musk[133] | Born 1971 | CEO ofTesla, Inc., founder and CEO ofSpaceX. In 2021, Musk had become the richest person in the world and first person reported to have a net worth of over 300 billion US dollars. Recognized for the achievements of stated companies in the prior years, includingthe first all-civilian orbital flight, as well as his public image and controversies.[134] | Time did not release a shortlist for 2021.[135] |
| 2022 | .jpg) | Volodymyr Zelenskyy[136] | Born 1978 | President of Ukraine since 2019, andsupreme commander-in-chief during the2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine | |
| The Spirit of Ukraine[138] | N/a | "The Spirit of Ukraine" represents the "resilience of theUkrainian people and theUkrainian resistance, as well asforeign aid to Ukraine". The feature spotlights the following people and organizations, in order:
| ||
| 2023 | .png) | Taylor Swift (2) | Born 1989 | Singer-songwriter whose 2023–2024Eras Tour became the highest-grossing concert tour of all time.[139] The tour had a significantcultural and economic impact in 2023.Time described Swift as the first Person of the Year to be recognized for their "achievement in the arts". Swift was also on the 2017 Person of the Year cover, called "The Silence Breakers". She was noted by the magazine as the first woman to appear twice on a Person of the Year cover.[140][141] | |
| 2024 |  | Donald Trump (2) | Born 1946 | In 2024, Trump waselected President of the United States for the second time, defeating incumbent Vice PresidentKamala Harris and becoming the second president to win two nonconsecutive terms afterGrover Cleveland in 1892. He survivedan assassination attempt in the summer while on the campaign trail.[142][143] | |
| 2025 | _artificial_intelligence_icon.png){kind=icon} | The Architects of AI | N/a | Highlights the "architects" behind the rapid development ofartificial intelligence (AI) technology, resulting in theAI boom.[145] The feature spotlights the following people, in alphabetical order:
| Time did not release a shortlist for 2025. |
Every year, in addition to the main Person of the Year,Time (sometimes alongside a partner company) acknowledges impactful people or groups in other categories. This is a relatively recent practice, beginning in 1998 whenMark McGwire was awarded the title of Hero of the Year and becoming a regular event in 2018 with the re-introduction of the Heroes of the Year award. Heroes of the Year was joined by Athlete of the Year, CEO of the Year, Entertainer of the Year and Guardians of the Year in 2019, Kid of the Year in 2020, Breakthrough of the Year, Dreamer of the Year, Icon of the Year and Innovator of the Year in 2022, Team of the Year in 2023 and Community of the Year in 2024. In line with the introduction of these new categories,Time has expanded their annual Person of the Year private event to include and celebrate their recipients. The event, titledA Year in TIME beginning in 2023, has been held atPlaza Hotel since 2022.[146][147]A Year in TIME typically features interviews, speeches and performances from some of the categories' winners, as well as winners of otherTime awards. Some of these are then posted toTime's official YouTube channel.
Athlete of the Year was awarded in partnership withOura Health in 2021,[148] and withLG in 2022.[149]
| Year | Choice | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 2019 | United States women's national soccer team | The international women's soccer team for the United States, who won the2019 FIFA Women's World Cup.[150] |
| 2020 | LeBron James | American basketball player, won the2020 NBA Finals with hisLos Angeles Lakers.[151] |
| 2021 | Simone Biles | American gymnast, pulled out of multiple gymnastics events during theTokyo Olympics for mental health concerns.[148] |
| 2022 | Aaron Judge | American baseball outfielder, hit the most home runs in a season in the history of theAmerican League with 62.[149] |
| 2023 | Lionel Messi | Argentine footballer, won the2022 FIFA World Cup withArgentina national team and record eighthBallon d'Or.[152] |
| 2024 | Caitlin Clark | American women's basketball player, was theAll-WNBA, 2024WNBA Rookie of the Year with theIndiana Fever.[153] |
| 2025 | A'ja Wilson | American women's basketball player, won the2025 WNBA season with theLas Vegas Aces and was that year'sWNBA Most Valuable Player,WNBA Finals Most Valuable Player andWNBA Defensive Player of the Year[154] |
In 2022, this selection was called Breakthrough Artist of the Year.
| Year | Choice | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 2022 | Mickey Guyton[155] | American country music artist |
| 2023 | Alex Newell[156] | American actor |
| 2025 | KPop Demon Hunters[157] | American animated film |
In 2019 and 2020, this selection was called Businessperson of the Year.
| Year | Choice | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 2019 | Bob Iger | CEO and executive chairman ofThe Walt Disney Company[158] |
| 2020 | Eric Yuan | CEO and founder ofZoom Video Communications[159] |
| 2023 | Sam Altman | CEO and co-founder ofOpenAI[160] |
| 2024 | Lisa Su | CEO, president and chair ofAMD[161] |
| 2025 | Neal Mohan | CEO ofYouTube[162] |
Community of the Year is awarded in partnership withLand O'Lakes.
| Year | Choice | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | People ofAgriculture[163] | Representing the global rural farming community |
Dreamer of the Year is awarded in partnership withAmerican Family Insurance.
| Year | Choice | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 2022 | Donnel Baird[164] | American entrepreneur and CEO ofBlocPower |
| 2023 | Syd Kitson[165] | Chairman and CEO of Kitson and Partners and former professional American football guard |
| 2024 | Portland Fire & Rescue[166] | The fire and rescue department ofPortland, which helped combat the2024 Oregon wildfires. |
| American Family Insurance Claims and Sales Teams,Omaha[166] | American Family Insurance's claims support team, which provided crucial support in the aftermath of atornado outbreak in April 2024 inBlair, Nebraska. | |
| Rebuilding Together,Tampa Bay[166] | Americannon-profit organization that provided relief in theTampa Bay area following the destruction of hurricanesHelene andMilton. | |
| 2025 | Direct Relief[167] | American non-profit organization that provided relief during theJanuary 2025 Southern California wildfires. |
In 2022, Entertainer of the Year was awarded in partnership withMontblanc.[168]
| Year | Choice | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 2019 | Lizzo | American rapper and singer-songwriter[169] |
| 2020 | BTS | South Korean K-pop boy band[170] |
| 2021 | Olivia Rodrigo | American singer-songwriter[171] |
| 2022 | Blackpink | South Korean K-pop girl group[168] |
| 2025 | Leonardo DiCaprio | American actor and film producer[172] |
In 2020, Guardians of the Year was awarded in partnership withAmazon.[173]
| Year | Choice | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 2019 | American public servants[174] | The feature spotlights those involved in that year'simpeachment inquiry against Donald Trump, particularlyMarie Yovanovitch,William Taylor,Fiona Hill,Alexander Vindman,Mark Sandy,Jennifer Williams,David Holmes,Laura Cooper and the original whistleblower. |
| 2020 | Anthony Fauci and frontline health workers[173] | Recognising the actions of frontline health workers around the world that helped contain and reduce the effects of theCOVID-19 pandemic. Fauci was the director of theNational Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the time, and is credited with being a pivotal figure in the United States' fight against the pandemic. |
| Porche-Bennett-Bey,Assa Traoré and racial justice organizers[175] | Recognising the actions of those who organized racial justice movements such as theGeorge Floyd protests. Bennett-Bey, a resident ofKenosha, Wisconsin, gained media attention for her activism following theshooting of Jacob Blake. Traoré is an activist and the sister of Adama Traoré, a black French man whodied in police custody in 2016. The police officers accused of brutality were cleared of blame on May 29, 2020, triggering a new wave of protests against police brutality in solidarity with the at the time ongoing George Floyd protests. |
In 2020, Heroes of the Year was awarded in partnership withState Farm.[176]
| Year | Choice | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1998 | Mark McGwire[177] | Baseball player for theSt. Louis Cardinals, who hit 70 home runs in 1998,breaking the single-season home run record.[178] In 2010, McGwire admitted he usedsteroids during the 1998 season.[179] |
| 2018 | The Thai Cave Rescuers[180] | TheTham Luang cave rescue took place during June and July 2018, where a group of 12 boys and their junior soccer team's assistant coach Ekkapol Chantawong, who had been trapped in a cave for over two weeks, were successfully located and rescued through an operation involving over 10,000 people. Time's corresponding article highlights the heroic actions of Chantawong, Narongsak Osottanakorn (the governor ofChiang Rai province at the time and overseer of the rescue operation),[181]John Volanthen andRick Stanton (two divers who first found the group alive),[182]Saman Kunan (the rescue's only immediate casualty) andRichard Harris (theanaesthesiologist and cave diver who played a crucial role in the rescue). |
| James Shaw Jr.[180] | Shaw disarmed a gunman during theNashville Waffle House shooting on April 22, 2018, preventing the death toll from going above 4, and started aGoFundMe campaign the following day which went on to raise over $240,000 for the families of the shooting's 4 fatalities. | |
| Brad Brown[180] | Brown, a hospital chaplain at Feather River Hospital inParadise, California, assisted with the evacuation of the hospital duringCamp Fire and personally drove three immobile patients out of town, successfully getting them to a hospital inChico after hours of potentially fatal road delays. | |
| Tammie Jo Shults[180] | Shults was the pilot ofSouthwest Airlines Flight 1380 on April 17, 2018, who, along with her first officer Darren Lee Ellisor, saved the lives of 143 following the failure of an engine which had fragments break off that damaged other parts of the plane and killed 1 passenger. | |
| Mamoudou Gassama[180] | On May 26, 2018, Gassama scaled four floors of an apartment building in Paris in under a minute, saving the life of a four-year-old boy dangling from a balcony and drawing comparisons toSpider-Man. | |
| 2019 | ||
| Defenders of Notre Dame[183] | Time's corresponding article discusses the actions of those who savedNotre-Dame's sacred treasures during thefire on April 15, 2019 (particularly Antoine-Marie Préaut, a conservator of Paris's historic monuments, and Laurent Prades, Notre-Dame's operational director), the ~400 firefighters who combatted the fire, and those who had begun preparing for the cathedral's reconstruction. | |
| Ryan Kyote[183] | Kyote, a nine-year-old resident ofNapa, California, used his allowance to pay off his grade's $74 lunch debt. His mother posted about it on social media and the story went viral, starting a wider national movement against school lunch debt.[184] As a result, Kyote's school district reversed their lunch debt policy and a law was passed in California banning "lunch shaming" (a term for giving worse food to students with debt). | |
| Satchel Smith[183] | Smith, a 21-year-old student inBeaumont, Texas, was the sole employee trapped in a hotel alongside 90 guests for over 30 hours duringTropical Storm Imelda. He stayed awake during the whole ordeal, and was assisted by guests in making dinner and providing stranded truckers with food and water. | |
| Nicole Chamberlain[183] | On November 11, 2019, Chamberlain, a bus driver inWaukesha, Wisconsin, saw a two-year-old girl and her six-year-old brother alone in temperatures below 20 °F (−7 °C) near a busy intersection. She brought them on board her bus, warmed them up and stayed with them until their grandmother showed up alongside police officers. | |
| Keanon Lowe[183] | On May 19, 2019, Lowe, a teacher at Parkrose High School inPortland, Oregon, saw a student armed with a shotgun and successfully disarmed him, preventing his suicide and a school shooting. Immediately after, he gave the student a sympathetic hug and provided him with comforting words. | |
| Chella Phillips[183] | Phillips, who runs a dog refuge inNassau, Bahamas, managed to protect the refuge's 82 dogs, alongside 15 other dogs, fromHurricane Dorian in her own home. During the week following the hurricane, she sent 68 of those dogs to homes and rescue groups in the United States after her story went viral there. | |
| 2020 | Australia's Volunteer Firefighters[185] | Time's corresponding article highlights the work done by volunteer firefighters during the2019–20 Australian bushfire season, including three that died on the job. |
| Jason Chua and Hung Zhen Long[186] | Chua and Hung, co-owners of the Beng Who Cooks food stall in Singapore, committed to delivering free food to those who could not afford it duringCOVID-19 lockdowns from April to June 2020. In total, they spent $11,000 on ~2,500 free meals. | |
| Greg Dailey[187] | Following the rise of theCOVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, Dailey, a newspaper deliveryman inMercer County, New Jersey, began a new service of dropping off goods free of charge. During the rest of the year, he, with the help of his family, supplied over 140 homes and conducted over 1000 grocery runs in his local area. | |
| Rahul Dubey[188] | On June 1, 2020, during theGeorge Floyd protests in Washington, D.C., Dubey provided refuge in his home to ~70 protestors who were being barricaded and pepper-sprayed by police, even letting them stay overnight to avoid curfew breaches. | |
| Pastor Reshorna Fitzpatrick and Bishop Derrick Fitzpatrick[189] | In April 2020, Reshorna and Derrick Fitzpatrick, a married couple who run Stone Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Chicago, began providing ~300 food boxes per week to people who became unemployed following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. They expanded their operation throughout the year, obtaining a supply of fresh produce from a local Black- and women-led nonprofit farm, providing hot soup every week and giving out supplies such as face masks and hand sanitizer. | |
| 2021 | Vaccine scientists[190] | The feature is dedicated to those that contributed to the creation ofCOVID-19 vaccines, and in particular spotlightsKatalin Karikó,Barney S. Graham,Kizzmekia Corbett andDrew Weissman, pioneers ofmRNA vaccine technology. |
| 2022 | Women of Iran[191] | After thedeath of Mahsa Amini on September 16, 2022, who was arrested for allegedly wearing herhijab improperly and later died after she had been —according to eyewitnesses— severely beaten byreligious morality police officers,massive global protests began.[192] Initial protests, mostly led by women, demanded an end to the mandatory hijab law, which has been in place since the1979 Islamic revolution.[193] According toIran Human Rights, at least 481 protesters including 64 minors have been killed in these protests as of January 9, 2023.[194] |
| Year | Choice | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 2022 | Michelle Yeoh[195] | Malaysian actress |
| 2024 | Elton John[196] | British singer-songwriter |
| Year | Choice | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 2022 | Gregory Robinson and theJames Webb Space Telescope team[197] | Robinson was the telescope's program director from 2018 to 2022. |
In 2020 and 2021, Kid of the Year was awarded in partnership withNickelodeon.
| Year | Choice | Notes | Runners-up |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Gitanjali Rao[198] | Scientist and inventor | 4
|
| 2021 | Orion Jean[199] | Humanitarian | 18
|
| 2024 | Heman Bekele[201] | Scientist and inventor | 5
|
| 2025 | Tejasvi Manoj[203] | Cybercrime activist | Time did not release a shortlist for 2025. |
Team of the Year is awarded in partnership withSmartsheet.
| Year | Choice | Notes | Runners-up |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | HP's Social Impact team[204] | The team consists of Michele Malejki, Mariama Kabia, Anshu Grover, Ina Progonati, Stephanie Bormann and Julio Vera Barajas. |
From 2010 to 2022,Time held an annual online poll for the readers to vote for who they believed to be thePerson of the Year. While many mistakenly believed the winner of the poll to be thePerson of the Year, the title, as mentioned above, is decided by the editors ofTime.[206]
| Year | Readers' Choice | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | Julian Assange | Founder ofWikiLeaks[207] |
| 2011 | Recep Tayyip Erdoğan | Prime Minister of Turkey[208] |
| 2012 | Kim Jong-un | Supreme Leader of North Korea[209] |
| 2013 | Abdel Fattah el-Sisi | President of Egypt[210] |
| 2014 | Narendra Modi | Prime Minister of India[211] |
| 2015 | Bernie Sanders | United States Senator fromVermont and2016 presidential candidate[212] |
| 2016 | Narendra Modi | Prime Minister of India[213] |
| 2017 | Mohammad bin Salman | Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia[214] |
| 2018 | BTS | K-pop band[215] |
| 2019 | Hong Kong Protesters | Protesters in Hong Kong in response to theextradition bill[216] |
| 2020 | Essential Workers | Those who worked during theCOVID-19 pandemic[217] |
| 2021 | Jair Bolsonaro | President of Brazil[218] |
| 2022 | Women Protesters in Iran | Women protesters in Iran who took part in theMahsa Amini protests[219] |
An online reader's choice poll was also held in 1998, with professional wrestlerMick Foley and murdered college studentMatthew Shepard as the top vote-getters, although the final result is unknown.[220][74]
{{cite magazine}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)