The Russian President has topped the Most Powerful People list, with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and US President Barack Obama coming in second and third place respectively.

It is the first time a sitting US President has not made one of the top 2 spots.

Factors such as the amount of money the individual controls, the number of people they impact, ‘spheres of influence’ and how the figures use their power are all taken into account when putting together the 73-person strong list.

Pope Francis has retained his fourth place position from last year, while General Secretary of the Communist Party of China’s Xi Jinping is at number five, having fallen two places.

Randall Lane, Editor of Forbes,has stated that the list illustrated a stark change in the global power structure.

"Over the past decade, one trend is clear: gradually less power in the West, gradually more power in the East," he said. "This is the first time in the list's history that the president of the United States hasn't ranked first or second. But Obama is a lame duck, accentuated by the Congress and international climate he faces."

Asked if Putin's seven-year reign would last into 2016, Lane said: "As history shows, power ebbs and flows. A new US president [could] arrive with inherently more power than a lame duck one."

New additions to the list include Hilary Clinton (58) Donald Trump (72) and Justin Trudeau, the Prime Minister of Canada.

Nine figures from 2014’s list have dropped off this year’s rankings completely.

These include Joseph Blatter, President of FIFA and Martin Winterkorn, the Former CEO of Volkswagen.

Forbes list of The World's Most Powerful People 2015

#1 Vladimir Putin – Russia – 63

#2 Angela Merkel – Germany – 61

#3 Barack Obama – United States – 54

#4 Pope Francis – Roman Catholic Church – 78

#5 Xi Jinping – China – 62

#6 Bill Gates – Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation – 60

#7 Janet Yellen – Washington, United States – 69

#8 David Cameron – United Kingdom 49

#9 Narendra Modi – India – 65

#10 Larry Page – Google – 42

#11 Mario Draghi – European Central Bank – 68

#12 Li Keqiang – China – 60

#13 Warren Buffett – Berkshire Hathaway – 85

#14 Salman bin Abdulaziz – Al Saud – 79

#15 Carlos Slim Helu América Móvil – 75

#16 Francois Hollande – France – 61

#17 Jeff Bezos – Amazon.com – 51

#18 Ali Hoseini-Khamenei Iran – 76

#19 Mark Zuckerberg – Facebook – 31

#20 Jamie Dimon – JPMorgan Chase 59

#21 Benjamin Netanyahu – Israel – 66

#22 Jack Ma – 51

#23 Christine Lagarde – International Monetary Fund – 59

#24 Jeffrey Immelt – General Electric – 59

#25 Rex Tillerson – Exxon Mobil – 63

#26 Lloyd Blankfein – Goldman Sachs Group – 61

#27 Tim Cook – Apple – 55

#28 Akio Toyoda – Toyota Motor – 59

#29 Charles Koch – Koch Industries – 80

#29 David Koch – Koch Industries – 75

#30 Sergey Brin – Google – 42

#31 Li Ka-shing CK – Hutchison Holdings – 87

#32 Doug McMillon – Wal-Mart Stores – 49

#33 Jay Y. Lee – Samsung Group – 47

#34 Larry Fink – BlackRock – 63

#35 Rupert Murdoch – News Corp – 84

#36 Mukesh Ambani – Reliance Industries – 58

#37 Dilma Rousseff – Brazil – 67

#38 Elon Musk – Space Exploration Technologies Corp. – 44

#39 Khalifa bin Zayed Al-Nahyan – United Arab Emirates – 67

#40 Ban Ki-moon – United Nations – 71

#41 Shinzo Abe – Japan – 61

#42 Ding Xuedong – China – 55

#43 Park Geun-hye – South Korea – 63

#44 Michael Bloomberg – Bloomberg – 73

#45 Jim Yong Kim – World Bank – 55

#46 Kim Jong-un – North Korea – 32

#47 Igor Sechin Rosneft – 55

#48 Ma Huateng – 44

#49 Abdel el-Sisi – Egypt – 60

#50 Haruhiko Kuroda – Japan – 71

#51 Masayoshi Son – Softbank – 58

#52 Enrique Pena Nieto – Mexico – 49

#53 Ali Al-Naimi – Saudi Arabia – 80

#54 Alexey Miller – Gazprom -53

#55 Lakshmi Mittal – ArcelorMittal (ADR) – 65

#56 Robin Li – Baidu – 46

#57 Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi – Islamic State in Iraq and Syria – 44

#58 Hillary Clinton – United States – 68

#59 Michael Dell – Dell – 50

#60 John Roberts – United States – 60

#61 Satya Nadella – Microsoft – 48

#62 Stephen Schwarzman – Blackstone Group – 68

#63 Ginni Rometty – IBM – 58

#64 Bill Clinton Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation – 69

#65 Mary Barra – General Motors – 53

#66 Bernard Arnault LVMH Moet Hennessy – Louis Vuitton – 66

#67 Alisher Usmanov – Metalloinvest – 62

#68 Wang Jianlin – 61

#69 Justin Trudeau – 43

#70 Carl Icahn Icahn – Capital Management -79

#71 Aliko Dangote – Dangote Group – 58

#72 Donald Trump – 69

#73 Margaret Chan – World Health Organization – 68