Who Are the Most Influential Millennials in the World?
Updated September 28, 2023 1.0K votes 137 voters
Over 100 Ranker voters have come together to rank this list of Who Are the Most Influential Millennials in the World?
Voting Rules
Only rank Millennials who were born between 1981-1996.
As the largest generation in history, Millennials are growing in influence. Ranging from sports, entertainment, tech, activism, and politics, these individuals deserve the distinction of "the world's most influential millennials."
Most divisive: Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook)
Ranked by
- 1Age: 3857 votes
- Birthplace: Funchal, Madeira, Portugal
Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro (born February 5, 1985) is a Portuguese professional soccer player who plays as a forward for Saudi Professional League club Al Nassr and captains the Portugal national team. Widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time, Ronaldo has won five Ballon d'Or awards[note 3] and four European Golden Shoes, the most by a European player. He has won 32 trophies in his career, including seven league titles, five UEFA Champions Leagues, the UEFA European Championship, and the UEFA Nations League. Ronaldo holds the records for most appearances (183), goals (140), and assists (42) in the Champions League, goals in the European Championship (14), international goals (118), and joint-most international appearances (196). He is one of the few players to have made over 1,100 professional career appearances and has scored over 800 official senior career goals for club and country. He is the only player to score in five FIFA World Cup tournaments. - 2Age: 4046 votes
- Birthplace: Elizabeth City, North Carolina, USA
Edward Joseph "Ed" Snowden is an American computer professional who leaked classified information from the National Security Agency to the mainstream media, starting in June 2013. A former system administrator for the Central Intelligence Agency and a counterintelligence trainer at the Defense Intelligence Agency, he later worked for Dell assigned as a contractor to U.S. National Security Agency facilities in the United States and inside an NSA outpost in Japan. In March 2013, he joined the consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton and worked as an infrastructure analyst inside the NSA center in Hawaii. In June 2013, he came to international attention after disclosing to several media outlets thousands of classified documents that he acquired while working as an NSA contractor for Dell and Booz Allen Hamilton. Snowden's leaked documents revealed numerous global surveillance programs, many of them run by the NSA and the Five Eyes with the cooperation of telecommunication companies and European governments. A subject of controversy, Snowden has been variously called a hero, a whistleblower, a dissident, a patriot, and a traitor. - 3Age: 3969 votes
- Birthplace: White Plains, New York
Mark Elliot Zuckerberg (; born May 14, 1984) is an American technology entrepreneur and philanthropist. Zuckerberg is known for co-founding and leading Facebook as its chairman and chief executive officer. He also co-founded and is a board member of the solar sail spacecraft development project Breakthrough Starshot.Born in White Plains, New York, Zuckerberg attended Harvard University, where he launched Facebook from his dormitory room on February 4, 2004, with college roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes. Originally launched to select college campuses, the site expanded rapidly and eventually beyond colleges, reaching one billion users by 2012. Zuckerberg took the company public in May 2012 with majority shares. His net worth is estimated to be $55.0 billion as of November 30, 2018, declining over the last year with Facebook stock as a whole. In 2007 at age 23 he became the world's youngest self-made billionaire. As of 2018, he is the only person under 50 in the Forbes ten richest people list, and the only one under 40 in the Top 20 Billionaires list.Since 2010, Time magazine has named Zuckerberg among the 100 wealthiest and most influential people in the world as a part of its Person of the Year award. In December 2016, Zuckerberg was ranked 10th on Forbes list of The World's Most Powerful People. - 4Age: 2652 votes
- Birthplace: Mingora, Pakistan
Malala Yousafzai is a Pakistani activist for female education and the youngest-ever Nobel Prize laureate. She is known mainly for human rights advocacy for education and for women in her native Swat Valley in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of northwest Pakistan, where the local Taliban had at times banned girls from attending school. Yousafzai's advocacy has since grown into an international movement. Her family runs a chain of schools in the region. In early 2009, when she was 11–12, Yousafzai wrote a blog under a pseudonym for the BBC detailing her life under Taliban occupation, their attempts to take control of the valley, and her views on promoting education for girls in the Swat Valley. The following summer, journalist Adam B. Ellick made a New York Times documentary about her life as the Pakistani military intervened in the region. Yousafzai rose in prominence, giving interviews in print and on television, and she was nominated for the International Children's Peace Prize by South African activist Desmond Tutu. On the afternoon of 9 October 2012, Yousafzai boarded her school bus in the northwest Pakistani district of Swat. - 5Age: 3858 votes
- Birthplace: Akron, Ohio, USA
LeBron Raymone James Sr. (born December 30, 1984) is an American professional basketball player for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). His accomplishments include three NBA championships, four NBA Most Valuable Player Awards, three NBA Finals MVP Awards, and two Olympic gold medals. James has appeared in fifteen NBA All-Star Games and been named NBA All-Star MVP three times. He won the 2008 NBA scoring title, is the all-time NBA playoffs scoring leader, and is fourth in all-time career points scored. He has been voted onto the All-NBA First Team twelve times and the All-Defensive First Team five times. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest basketball players of all time.James played basketball for St. Vincent–St. Mary High School in his hometown of Akron, Ohio, where he was heavily touted by the national media as a future NBA superstar. A prep-to-pro, he joined the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2003 as the first overall draft pick. Named the 2003–04 NBA Rookie of the Year, he soon established himself as one of the league's premier players; he won the NBA Most Valuable Player Award in 2009 and 2010. After failing to win a championship with Cleveland, James left in 2010 to sign as a free agent with the Miami Heat. This move was announced in an ESPN special titled The Decision, and is one of the most controversial free agent decisions in American sports history. James won his first two NBA championships while playing for the Miami Heat in 2012 and 2013; in both of these years, he also earned league MVP and Finals MVP. After his fourth season with the Heat in 2014, James opted out of his contract to re-sign with the Cavaliers. In 2016, he led the Cavaliers to victory over the Golden State Warriors in the NBA Finals, delivering the franchise's first championship and ending Cleveland's 52-year professional sports title drought. His teams appeared in the NBA Finals in eight consecutive seasons (from 2011 to 2018). In 2018, James opted out of his contract with the Cavaliers to sign with the Lakers. Off the court, James has accumulated additional wealth and fame from numerous endorsement contracts. His public life has been the subject of much scrutiny, and he has been ranked as one of America's most influential and popular athletes. He has been featured in books, documentaries, and television commercials. He has also hosted the ESPY Awards and Saturday Night Live, and appeared in the 2015 film Trainwreck. - 652 votesMohammad bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, also known as MBS, is the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, First Deputy Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia, and the youngest minister of defense in the world. Mohammad bin Salman is also president of the Council for Economic and Development Affairs. He has been described as the power behind the throne of his father, King Salman. He was appointed Crown Prince in June 2017 following his father's decision to remove Muhammad bin Nayef from all positions, making Mohammad bin Salman heir apparent to the throne.
