Who is the most recognizable living person in the world?

[Хahar 🤔]

I feel like I'm at least a little bit qualified to answer this question, having spent time in the Third World. Cristiano Ronaldo's face is on billboards selling deodorant in Dhaka, but that doesn't make him Barack Obama.

[Hatman 🍁]

The answer is without a doubt Obama.

[Oldiesfreak1854]

The answer is without a doubt Obama.

[nolesfan2011]

Obama def, because non catholic majority countries would have considerably lower recognition for the pope, and non English dominion countries same situation with Queen Elizabeth.

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

Let's just skip Presidents........outside of them, I'll say Paul McCartney.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

Either Francis or Obama of the three, but I think it's not any of the three in the poll in terms of overall recognition.

[Reaganfan]

Clinton, Obama, Dubya, all take the cake over the Pope and the Queen.

[politicus]

I feel like I'm at least a little bit qualified to answer this question, having spent time in the Third World. Cristiano Ronaldo's face is on billboards selling deodorant in Dhaka, but that doesn't make him Barack Obama.

"The Third World" is a big place and Bangla Desh is not particularly typical in this context. 

[angus]

I feel like I'm at least a little bit qualified to answer this question, having spent time in the Third World. Cristiano Ronaldo's face is on billboards selling deodorant in Dhaka, but that doesn't make him Barack Obama.

"The Third World" is a big place and Bangla Desh is not particularly typical in this context.  

"The Third World" has no real meaning anymore (as long as we're nitpicking.)  It is a relic of the Cold War.  Either you were aligned with the USA, or you were aligned with the USSR, or you weren't aligned with either.  This unaligned group, the third group, was referred to as the "Third World."  Since there's no longer a bi-polar world--and since everyone agrees that although the impatient, shallow, imperialistic US culture sucks hard, it's hard to argue against indoor plumbing, air-conditioning, Hollywood movies, and tissue in every toilet--there's really no reason to keep using the term.  

[Gustaf]

How are we counting false positives? If we discard those I'm almost certain it'd be Obama, for racial reasons if nothing else.

[Middle-aged Europe]

Dunno... Tom Cruise? Tom Hanks? Bruce Willis? Take your pick.

[justfollowingtheelections]

It's either Obama or Tom Cruise IMO.

[Mordecai]

Some Chinese or Indian movie star that we've never heard of.

[Middle-aged Europe]

Some Chinese or Indian movie star that we've never heard of.

If anything, it would probably be a Chinese or Indian movie star we actually have heard of. Think of Shahrukh Khan for instance. It stands to reason that any Chinese/Indian movie star who is in fact known in the Western World would also be more famous at home than a movie star who is not known in the West.

That being said, I would still contest that some Western star like Tom Cruise could trump someone like Sharukh Khan, because a Western movie star's recognizability would still be more universal throughout the world. I'd assume that Tom Cruise's recognizability outside of the United States is significantly higher than Sharukh Khan's is outside of India. (And of course there are still more people living outside of India than they do in India. )