How We Chose the 2026 TIME100
In July 1969, TIME published a detailed report on “la causa,” the protest movement ignited by California’s Mexican American farmworkers. Its cover featured the cause’s leader, Cesar Chavez, and the story inside described a “tiny, tough assistant” named Dolores Huerta. Just a few weeks ago, we learned, yet again, how tough Huerta is when she came forward to join other women in claiming that they had been sexually assaulted by Chavez, a lion of America’s left. “I have kept this secret long enough. My silence ends here,” said Huerta, a fierce advocate for women and workers. Fifty-seven years after first appearing in these pages, Huerta joins the 2026 TIME100, which recognizes the world’s most influential people.
All year, we debate who belongs on the TIME100. There is no single metric that defines influence. Our selections are led by the stories that are shaping the world each year and the people who write them. Some are well known to many, others only within their fields. To find them, we poll our editors, reporters, and sources around the world, and review the recommendations that are sent to us every day. Few people, we suspect, will be familiar with all 100 individuals. We believe that is part of the appeal of the TIME100, now well into its third decade, and the reason it has endured. In recent years, we’ve been busy growing the TIME100 community by focusing on the areas we believe shape the future—including AI, Climate, Health, and Philanthropy, as well as emerging fields in which individuals, such as digital creators, are playing an outsize role.
Since I became editor three years ago, we’ve been dedicated to bringing that community together around the world, which we will do again with the TIME100 Summit and TIME100 Gala in New York City later this month. Then, in June, we’ll release the inaugural TIME100 Sports list. This year has been dominated by two global sporting events, the Olympics and the World Cup, that underline how the business of sports and those who lead it are changing culture in unprecedented ways.
That evolution is inspired by the knowledge that influence comes in many forms, as captured in the 2026 TIME100: a character imagined by novelist Tayari Jones; a meal prepared by chef Vikas Khanna; a moment captured by photographer Lynsey Addario, whose work has been featured in TIME since the Afghanistan war. We are inspired by the heroics of Olympians on this year’s list, including Alysa Liu, Hilary Knight, and Chloe Kim—as we are by the genius of doctors like Kiran Musunuru and Rebecca Ahrens-Nicklas. Influence, as we often say, has no age requirement. The list includes both 96-year-old Huerta and 35-year-old Balendra Shah, elected Nepal’s Prime Minister following the country’s Gen Z protests.
This time last year, we were just taking measure of what Donald Trump’s return to Washington meant for the U.S. and beyond. We remain, as we wrote on a cover last fall, very much in Trump’s world. As I write this, the Iran war is approaching its 40th day of fighting, and our list this year includes four members of his Administration, including those who focus on foreign policy. It also includes a number of Democrats who have come to power or prominence as they confront the President and his policies. Global leaders on the 2026 TIME100 like Canada’s Mark Carney and Denmark’s Mette Frederiksen have seen their popularity increase at home as they stood up to Trump this past year.
Our covers this year feature comedian Nikki Glaser, actors Zoe Saldaña and Wagner Moura, and singer Luke Combs, who all left their mark on culture this year. They are photographed by Mark Seliger, who shot the TIME100 covers for us in 2013 as well. The TIME100 list and events are led by Dan Macsai, alongside Cate Matthews, Kara Simonetti, Kelly Conniff, and individuals across TIME. As we close this year’s list and think about how much has changed since that “tough” Dolores Huerta appeared first in TIME, we are eager to see which of the individuals in this issue will still be wielding influence more than 50 years from today.