Time Person of the Year: Complete List of Winners from 1927 to 2025

Quick answer: The most recent Time Person of the Year is “The Architects of AI”, named for 2025 and announced on 11 December 2025. Time magazine has picked a Man, Woman or Person of the Year every year since 1927, starting with the aviator Charles Lindbergh. Mahatma Gandhi, named for 1930, is still the only Indian to have been chosen.

What is Time Person of the Year?

Person of the Year is an annual feature by the American news magazine Time. Each December its editors choose the person, group, idea or object that they judge to have most influenced the news over the previous twelve months. Time’s own explanation describes the honouree as the person or persons who most affected the news and our lives “for good or ill”, so it is a measure of influence, not an award for good conduct. That is why the list includes Adolf Hitler (1938) and Joseph Stalin (1939 and 1942) as well as Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.

The title was “Man of the Year” when it began in 1927 and became the gender-neutral “Person of the Year” in 1999. Women had been chosen before that: Wallis Simpson, named for 1936, was the first, under the label “Woman of the Year”.

The choice is made by Time’s editors. Between 2010 and 2022 Time also ran an online readers’ poll, but the poll winner was not the official Person of the Year.

Time Person of the Year 2016: a correction

An earlier version of this article, written in late 2016 before the announcement, said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi would be Person of the Year 2016. That did not happen. Modi did win Time’s online readers’ poll in December 2016, with 18% of the votes, as reported by Indian and international media at the time; he had also won the readers’ poll in 2014. But Time’s editors named Donald Trump, then the US president-elect, as Person of the Year 2016.

The older article also listed a few winners against the wrong year or with wrong details. Those are corrected in the list and the notes below.

Notable Time Person of the Year winners

The original version of this page picked one stand-out winner from each decade. Those picks are kept here, with the facts corrected.

• 1927: Charles Lindbergh. The American pilot who made the first solo non-stop flight across the Atlantic in 1927 was the first ever Man of the Year.
• 1930: Mahatma Gandhi. Named in the year of the Salt Satyagraha, Gandhi was the first non-American chosen and remains the only Indian. If you are in Delhi, Gandhi Smriti, the house where he spent his last days, is open to visitors.
• 1938: Adolf Hitler. Chosen for his influence on world events that year, not as praise.
• 1940 and 1949: Winston Churchill. The British wartime prime minister was named for 1940, and again for 1949 as “Man of the Half-Century”. An earlier version of this article said he was the first person named twice; in fact Franklin D. Roosevelt was named for 1932 and 1934, and again for 1941, which makes him the only person chosen three times.
• 1952: Elizabeth II. The year she became queen after the death of her father, King George VI. An earlier version gave the year as 1951 and called her the first woman chosen; the first was Wallis Simpson (1936).
• 1963: Martin Luther King Jr. The civil rights leader was named in the year of the March on Washington. He was never a US president, as an earlier version of this page wrongly said.
• 1971 and 1972: Richard Nixon. Named alone for 1971, and jointly with his national security adviser Henry Kissinger for 1972.
• 1980 and 1983: Ronald Reagan. Named as president-elect and again three years later.
• 2000 and 2004: George W. Bush. Named in the years he was first elected and then re-elected.
• 2007: Vladimir Putin. An earlier version said 2006; the 2006 choice was “You”, the people creating content online.
• 2010: Mark Zuckerberg. The founder of Facebook.
• 2011: The Protester. Not one student, as an earlier version said, but the many protesters around the world that year, from the Arab Spring onwards.
• 2008 and 2012: Barack Obama. Named when first elected and when re-elected.
• 2013: Pope Francis. Chosen in the year he was elected pope.
• 2014: The Ebola Fighters. The doctors, nurses and other workers who fought the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. An earlier version said they had found an antidote; they were recognised for treating patients and containing the outbreak.
• 2015: Angela Merkel. The German chancellor, during the European debt and migrant crises.

Complete list of Time Person of the Year winners (1927 to 2025)

Years are the year the honour covers. The magazine issue itself often appears in late December or early January, so some sources list a winner against the following year.

Person of the Year since 2016

Since this page was first written, the choices have moved between politics, social movements and technology:

• 2017, The Silence Breakers: people who spoke out about sexual harassment and abuse.
• 2018, The Guardians: journalists who faced persecution, arrest or murder for their reporting.
• 2019, Greta Thunberg: the Swedish climate activist.
• 2021, Elon Musk: head of Tesla and SpaceX.
• 2023, Taylor Swift: the singer, in the year of her record-breaking Eras Tour. She had also been among the Silence Breakers in 2017.
• 2024, Donald Trump: his second time, after winning a second, non-consecutive term as US president.
• 2025, The Architects of AI: the people who built and funded the current wave of artificial intelligence. Time’s cover featured Mark Zuckerberg, Lisa Su, Elon Musk, Jensen Huang, Sam Altman, Demis Hassabis, Dario Amodei and Fei-Fei Li. For how AI tools are changing everyday work, see our article on the impact of AI on a professional writing career.

Time usually announces the next Person of the Year in December. Check time.com for the 2026 choice once it is published.

Frequently asked questions

Who is the latest Time Person of the Year?

The latest is “The Architects of AI”, Time’s Person of the Year for 2025, announced on 11 December 2025. The 2026 choice is expected in December 2026.

Did Narendra Modi win Time Person of the Year?

No. Modi won Time’s online readers’ poll in 2014 and again in 2016, when he received 18% of the votes. The official Person of the Year is chosen by Time’s editors, who named Ebola Fighters for 2014 and Donald Trump for 2016. For a lighter look at one of his best-known campaigns, see our page on International Yoga Day and Narendra Modi.

Which Indian has been Time Person of the Year?

Mahatma Gandhi, named Man of the Year for 1930, is the only Indian to have been chosen.

Who has been Time Person of the Year the most times?

Franklin D. Roosevelt, the US president, was chosen three times: for 1932, 1934 and 1941. Several others have been chosen twice, including Winston Churchill, Joseph Stalin, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Donald Trump.

Is Person of the Year an award?

Not in the usual sense. Time picks whoever it thinks most influenced the year’s events, for good or ill. That is why controversial figures such as Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin are on the list.

List checked in October 2026 against Time magazine’s Person of the Year coverage (including its 2025 “Architects of AI” issue and its Person of the Year facts page) and December 2016 reporting on the Time readers’ poll.