Edition 2026
Top 20 · 200,960 public votes
The most pressing issues
The problems the public most wants solved, ranked by open ballot. Every vote is counted toward the order below.
- 1 Clean water and sanitation Two billion people still drink unsafe water.18,420
- 2 Child hunger Malnutrition in the first 1,000 days is irreversible.17,650
- 3 Human trafficking Forced labour and sexual exploitation at scale.16,210
- 4 Climate breakdown Emissions, heat, and the communities least able to adapt.15,980
- 5 Access to basic healthcare Preventable and treatable disease in low-income regions.14,340
- 6 Girls’ education Millions of girls are out of school or married as children.13,120
- 7 Mental health care Untreated illness, isolation, and rising youth suicide.12,770
- 8 Refugee displacement Record numbers forced from home by war and disaster.11,890
- 9 Elder loneliness and care An ageing population with no one checking in.10,450
- 10 Political corruption Public money diverted from the people it was raised for.9,880
- 11 Antibiotic resistance Routine infections becoming untreatable again.8,940
- 12 Housing and homelessness Shelter priced beyond the reach of working families.8,410
- 13 Exploitative labour conditions Unsafe factories and wages below subsistence.7,620
- 14 Ocean and freshwater pollution Plastics, runoff, and collapsing fisheries.6,980
- 15 Biodiversity loss Habitat destruction and accelerating extinction rates.6,240
- 16 Online harm to children Exploitation, addiction, and unregulated platforms.5,710
- 17 Digital privacy and surveillance Data collected without consent or recourse.5,020
- 18 Prison and justice reform Wrongful conviction and punishment without rehabilitation.4,380
- 19 Animal welfare in food systems Industrial cruelty normalised at enormous scale.3,760
- 20 Disability access Public life still built for only some bodies.3,190
Have your say
The ranking is aggregated from 200,960 public ballots. One submission per person, per edition.
Voting opens soonTop 100 · 12 ranked
The most virtuous people
Individuals whose work has measurably reduced suffering, defended the vulnerable, or widened the circle of human dignity.
- 1 DMDenis Mukwege Age 71
Surgeon rebuilding the lives of survivors of wartime sexual violence in the DRC.
- 2 MYMalala Yousafzai Age 29
Campaigns for twelve years of free, safe, quality education for every girl.
- 3 KSKailash Satyarthi Age 72
Has freed tens of thousands of children from bonded labour and trafficking.
- 4 NMNadia Murad Age 33
Advocate for Yazidi survivors and for prosecuting genocide as a crime of war.
- 5 BSBryan Stevenson Age 67
Defends the wrongly condemned and confronts the legacy of racial injustice.
- 6 MYMuhammad Yunus Age 86
Built microfinance into a tool that let millions lend their way out of poverty.
- 7 JAJosé Andrés Age 57
Feeds people in the immediate aftermath of disaster, anywhere in the world.
- 8 TBTarana Burke Age 53
Built a survivor-led movement that changed how the world hears victims.
- 9 VSVandana Shiva Age 74
Defends seed sovereignty and smallholder farmers against extractive agriculture.
- 10 IEIlwad Elman Age 37
Rehabilitates child soldiers and supports survivors of violence in Somalia.
- 11 RNRosemary Nyirumbe Age 70
Shelters and trains young women escaping abduction in northern Uganda.
- 12 ZMZannah Mustapha Age 67
Educates the orphans of both sides of the conflict in north-east Nigeria.
- 13–100 88 places open for nomination
Top 100 · 12 ranked
The most virtuous companies
Organisations that put people and the planet ahead of short-term profit, and have structured themselves to keep doing so.
- 1 PPatagonia
- CEO
- Ryan Gellert
- Ethics
- Not listed
Outdoor apparel held in trust, with profits directed to climate defence.
- 2 TCTony's Chocolonely
- CEO
- Not listed
- Ethics
- Not listed
Chocolate built to end illegal child labour in the cocoa supply chain.
- 3 EEcosia
- CEO
- Christian Kroll
- Ethics
- Not listed
Search engine that spends its ad revenue on reforestation.
- 4 FFairphone
- CEO
- Not listed
- Ethics
- Not listed
Repairable smartphones made from conflict-free and recycled materials.
- 5 IInterface
- CEO
- Not listed
- Ethics
- Not listed
Flooring manufacturer operating as a carbon-negative business.
- 6 GBGrameen Bank
- CEO
- Not listed
- Ethics
- Not listed
Member-owned bank lending to the rural poor without collateral.
- 7 WFWikimedia Foundation
- CEO
- Not listed
- Ethics
- Not listed
Keeps the sum of human knowledge free of charge and free of ads.
- 8 SFSignal Foundation
- CEO
- Not listed
- Ethics
- Not listed
Private messaging funded by donations rather than surveillance.
- 9 DBDr. Bronner’s
- CEO
- Not listed
- Ethics
- Not listed
Family soap maker with capped executive pay and regenerative sourcing.
- 10 BBombas
- CEO
- Not listed
- Ethics
- Not listed
Essentials brand donating an item for every item sold.
- 11 WGWho Gives A Crap
- CEO
- Not listed
- Ethics
- Not listed
Paper goods funding sanitation projects in the communities that lack them.
- 12 MMozilla
- CEO
- Not listed
- Ethics
- Not listed
Open web software governed by a non-profit rather than shareholders.
- 13–100 88 places open for nomination
Top 25 · 10 ranked
The most virtuous AI
Artificial intelligence that serves humanity rather than itself — systems that stay within the law, treat people with respect, and protect human life.
- Follows the law Operates within the law and refuses to help anyone break it.
- Respects people Is honest, guards privacy and dignity, and leaves humans in control.
- Protects life Refuses to help cause harm, and works to prevent it where it can.
- 1 AAlphaFold
- By
- Google DeepMind
- Policy
- Not listed
Predicted the structures of over 200 million proteins and released them freely for medical research.
- 2 FHFlood Hub
- By
- Google Research
- Policy
- Not listed
Forecasts river flooding days in advance in more than 80 countries, giving communities time to evacuate.
- 3 BMBe My AI
- By
- Be My Eyes
- Policy
- Not listed
Describes the world aloud for blind and low-vision people, with a human volunteer one tap away.
- 4 CChatGPT
- By
- OpenAI
- Policy
- Model Spec · Preparedness Framework
General assistant governed by a public specification of how it should behave and what it must refuse.
- 5 CClaude
- By
- Anthropic
- Policy
- Constitution · Responsible Scaling Policy
General assistant trained to a published constitution, with safeguards that tighten as capability grows.
- 6 CCopilot
- By
- Microsoft
- Policy
- Responsible AI Standard
Workplace assistant built under a company-wide standard for fairness, safety and accountability.
- 7 GGemini
- By
- Google DeepMind
- Policy
- Frontier Safety Framework
Multimodal assistant evaluated against defined thresholds for severe risk before each release.
- 8 GGranite
- By
- IBM
- Policy
- ISO/IEC 42001
Open enterprise models with documented training data, certified to the international AI management standard.
- 9 LLlama
- By
- Meta
- Policy
- Frontier AI Framework
Openly released model family that ships with its own safety classifiers for developers.
- 10 LCLe Chat
- By
- Mistral AI
- Policy
- Not listed
European assistant built under the EU AI Act’s obligations for general-purpose models.
- 11–25 15 places open for nomination
5 categories · 21 ranked
The best grief and loss support
Help is judged on what it actually provides, whether it comes from a clinic, a charity, a company or a government — and each kind of help is ranked only against its own kind.
In crisis? In the US, call or text 988. In the UK, call Samaritans on 116 123.
- 25% Evidence Research shows it works, above all for clinical help.
- 15% Fit Built for specific losses and groups, such as child loss, suicide loss or grieving kids.
- 20% Access Cost, wait times, location, language and online availability.
- 15% Duration Support that continues beyond the first weeks.
- 15% Quality & safety Trained staff, crisis plans, and no pressure to grieve a certain way.
- 10% Feedback What people who used it say.
Weighted for a public list, so access counts for more than it would in a research review. The bars beside each score follow this order.
Treatment from trained clinicians, held to the strictest standard of evidence.
- 1 Prolonged Grief Disorder Therapy Center for Prolonged Grief, Columbia University · Clinical
A 16-session treatment for grief that has become stuck, tested in several randomised trials.
- Prolonged grief
- Access
- Insurance or fee · In person or telehealth · Trained clinicians worldwide
- Lasts
- 16 weekly sessions
80 of 100 - 2 Hospice bereavement care Medicare-certified hospices · Clinical
Families of hospice patients are offered bereavement support for up to a year after the death, at no extra cost.
- Expected death
- Access
- Free to families · Calls, visits and groups · US
- Lasts
- Up to a year
79 of 100 - 3 Cognitive behavioural therapy for grief Licensed therapists · Clinical
Structured therapy that works on avoidance and painful beliefs after a loss, supported by randomised trials in adults.
- Access
- Insurance or fee · In person or online · Widely available
- Lasts
- 8–20 sessions
76 of 100 - 4 Trauma-focused CBT for childhood grief Trained child therapists · Clinical
Therapy for children whose grief is tangled up with trauma, with a caregiver taking part in sessions.
- Grieving kids
- Traumatic loss
- Access
- Insurance or fee · In person · Limited by trained clinicians
- Lasts
- 12–16 sessions
73 of 100
Not ranked
Help from the people around you
Friends, family and colleagues are not scored. Instead, these are the things bereaved people often describe as helping most.
- Showing up At the funeral, and in the quiet months after it.
- Offering something specific “I’ll bring dinner on Thursday,” rather than “let me know if you need anything.”
- Saying their name Talking about the person who died, not around them.
- Remembering the dates Birthdays, anniversaries and holidays, long after others have moved on.
- Listening without fixing No timeline, no silver linings, no right way to grieve.
- Staying in touch Checking in at three months, six months and a year.