Instagram has become one of the mandatory platforms for political communication. 164 world leaders from different countries have official verified accounts, which are maintained by their press service.
Instagram is an effective and cost-free tool for communicating with citizens and potential voters. This tool becomes especially valuable because with the help of Instagram politicians can communicate with the younger generation, the so-called Generation Z, who take less trust in traditional media such as TV and newspapers.
It became interesting for us to compile a rating of leaders by the number of followers on Instagram and find out who is now the most popular world leader on Instagram.
To do this, we found all verified accounts of the leaders of 245 countries; in total, 164 leaders globally have verified Instagram accounts. Then we collected data on the number of followers of these accounts and added additional information that may be of interest, for example Engagement Rate, Average number of likes and Comments, % of female and male audience, number of mentions.
Key Findings
The most popular world leader on Instagram is Narendra Modi, his account @Narendramodi has 55.1 Million followers.
Second place goes to Indonesian president Joko Vidodo with 39.1 Million followers. Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro is in third place with 18.3 Million followers.On average 30% of the top 25 leaders audience are representatives of the Generation Z, which is a good indicator of how politicians can communicate through social media with young people.
The only leader from the list who has closed comments is Ilham Aliyev the President of Azerbaijan. It’s worth noting that his account presidentaz makes the most average posts per week – 84 posts.
The fastest growing leader Instagram account belongs to the President of the USA Joe Biden. His account @joebiden has a yearly growth rate of 829% and takes 4th place in the list with 18.1 Million followers.
List of 25 most popular world leaders on Instagram
The data in the table is current as of May 2021. To open the leader’s Instagram account, click on his name.
| Country | Position | Name | Followers (M) | Average posts per week | ER | Avg Likes | Avg Comments | Female | Male | Zoomers | Yearly Growth | Mentions total in last 90 days | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | India | Prime Minister | Narendra Modi | 54.9M | 3.65 | 1.79 | 1800000 | 13300 | 30 | 70 | 51 | 36.5 | 9226 |
| 2 | Indonezia | President | Joko Vidodo | 38.9M | 12 | 0.55 | 309200 | 2300 | 57 | 43 | 49 | 24.4 | 6494 |
| 3 | Brazil | President | Jair Bolsonaro | 18.3M | 21 | 0.79 | 171200 | 4400 | 43 | 57 | 16 | 10.8 | 10450 |
| 4 | USA | President | Joe Biden | 18.1M | 0.88 | 4.35 | 527200 | 20500 | 56 | 44 | 35 | 829 | 16669 |
| 5 | USA | Prime Minister | Kamala Harris | 16.9M | 0.88 | 0.06 | 1100000 | 10600 | 56 | 44 | 17 | 724.3 | 17471 |
| 6 | Turkey | President | Recep Tayyip Erdoğan | 9.4M | 7 | 0.91 | 86100 | 1300 | 31 | 69 | 30 | 22.7 | 6438 |
| 7 | Ukraine | President | Volodymyr Zelensky | 9.2M | 4.2 | 2.48 | 233600 | 7100 | 60 | 40 | 38 | −2.4 | 696 |
| 8 | United Arav Emirates | Prime Minister | Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum | 5.6M | 3.82 | 0.75 | 33500 | 1100 | 24 | 76 | 24 | 10.4 | 2848 |
| 9 | Venezuela | President | Juan Guaidó | 4.4M | 6 | 0.00 | 8900 | 1100 | 39 | 61 | 27 | −4 | 3255 |
| 10 | Canada | Prime Minister | Justin Trudeau | 3.9M | 2.71 | 1.73 | 67700 | 2300 | 44 | 56 | 26 | 7.4 | 392 |
| 11 | Uzbekistan | President | Shavkat Mirziyoyev | 3.4M | 8.4 | 0.49 | 13900 | 133 | 25 | 75 | 39 | 26.5 | 172 |
| 12 | Salvador | President | Nayib Bukele | 3M | 2.1 | 2.35 | 70900 | 1200 | 61 | 39 | 35 | 47.4 | 483 |
| 13 | Argentina | President | Alberto Fernández | 2.6M | 4.42 | 1.55 | 40100 | 2200 | 52 | 48 | 27 | 10.4 | 2739 |
| 14 | France | President | Emmanuel Macron | 2.3M | 4.94 | 1.23 | 30700 | 1000 | 57 | 43 | 43 | 26.1 | 1647 |
| 15 | Egypt | President | Abdelfattah Elsisi | 2300 | 2.4 | 0.01 | 26100 | 815 | 27 | 73 | 29 | 33.5 | 43 |
| 16 | Iran | President | Hassan Rouhani | 2.2M | 0.21 | 3.82 | 79100 | 16200 | 17 | 83 | 29 | −0.6 | 420 |
| 17 | New Zealand | Prime Minister | Jacinda Ardern | 1.7M | 9.33 | 2.72 | 31900 | 296 | 50 | 50 | 28 | 65.6 | 373 |
| 18 | Germany | Federal Chancellor | Angela Merkel | 1.7M | 9.33 | 2.28 | 4300 | 1700 | 47 | 53 | 25 | 31.6 | 575 |
| 19 | Ghana | President | Nana Akufo-Addo | 1.4M | 1.62 | 0.01 | 19200 | 305 | 42 | 58 | 41 | 57.6 | 348 |
| 20 | United Kingdom | Prime Minister | Boris Johnson | 1.3M | 4 | 3.94 | 63300 | 1400 | 49 | 51 | 32 | 39.2 | 1168 |
1. Narendra Modi
The first place in the rating is occupied by the account of Naredra Modi the Prime Minister of India.
Account @Narendramodi has 55.1 Million followers, which makes it the most popular Instagram account of the political leader in the World.
Narendra Damodardas Modi is an Indian politician serving as the 14th and current Prime Minister of India since 2014. He was the Chief Minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Parliament for Varanasi. Modi is a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party and its National Democratic Alliance.
Source: Instagram
Number of posts: 448
Average posts per week: 3.65
Engagement rate: 1.79%
Reactions: on average each post gets 1.8M likes and 13 300 comments.
Source: HypeAuditor
77% (42M) of Narendra’s account followers are from India. There were 161M Instagram users in India in April 2021, so 26% of Indian Instagram users follow Narendra Modi.
The majority of followers are male between 18 and 34 years old – 54%.
51% of followers belong to Generation Z.
Source: HypeAuditor
Account @Narendramodi has grown by 14.4 million followers for last year which is an excellent growth rate.
For the last 90 days account was mentioned 9226 times by instagram influencers.
2. Joko Vidodo
Second place goes to Indonesian president Joko Vidodo
His account @jokowi has 39.1 million followers.
Joko Widodo, also known as Jokowi, is an Indonesian politician and businessman who is the 7th and current president of Indonesia.
Source: Instagram
Number of posts: 2533
Average posts per week: 12
Engagement rate: 0.55%
Reactions: on average each post gets 390K likes and 2 300 comments.
77% (27M) of Joko Widodo’s account followers are from Indonesia.
There were 87.8M Instagram users in Indonesia in April 2021, so 31% of Indonesian Instagram users follow Joko Vidodo.
The majority of followers are female between 18 and 34 years old (41%)
49% of followers belong to Generation Z.
Account @jokowi has grown by 7.5 million followers for last year which is an excellent growth rate.
For the last 90 days Jokowi’s account was mentioned 9226 times by instagram influencers.
3. Jair Bolsonaro
Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro is in third place with 18.3 Million followers.
Jair Messias Bolsonaro is a Brazilian politician and retired military officer who is the 38th president of Brazil. Elected in 2018 as a member of the conservative Social Liberal Party before cutting ties with them, he has been in office since 1 January 2019.
Source: Instagram
Number of posts: 4764
Average posts per week: 21
Engagement rate: 0.79%
Reactions: On average each post gets 171K likes and 4400 comments.
76% (13.9M) of Jair Bolsonaro’s account followers are from Brazil.
There were 101.8M Instagram users in Brazil in April 2021, so 13% of Brazilian Instagram users follow Jair Bolsonaro’s account.
The majority of followers are male between 25 and 44 years old (38%)
15.86% of followers belong to Generation Z.
His account has grown by 1.7 million followers for last year which is an average growth rate.
In the last 90 days @jairmessiasbolsonaro was mentioned 11 216 times.
About HypeAuditor
This report was made by HypeAuditor
HypeAuditor is an AI-powered Instagram, TikTok and Youtube analytics tool that helps to get insights about the creator’s audience, increase advertisers’ ROI and safeguard authenticity in influencer marketing. It sets a standard for the Instagram analytics by providing the most accurate data.
HypeAuditor applies machine learning to determine behavioral patterns and identify fake followers and engagement on influencer accounts. It presents users with a breakdown of demographic data for an influencer’s audience and brings benchmarks for each metric for influencers with a similar number of followers.
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