Pope Francis has the highest Twitter following of all the world’s leaders, a study has revealed.
Combining all of the pontiff’s nine Twitter accounts in various languages, Francis claims a total following on the social media platform of 36.2 million.
According to an analysis by Twiplomacy, a group that tracks the social media use of world leaders, Pope Francis currently has the highest Twitter following, although with over 35.3 million followers US President Donald Trump is not far behind.
Pope Francis’s two most popular tweets appear to refer to Donald Trump’s policies.
“I invite you not to build walls but bridges, to conquer evil with good, offence with forgiveness, to live in peace with everyone”, Francis posted on March 18, 2017.
A month earlier the pontiff wrote: “How often in the Bible the Lord asks us to welcome migrants and foreigners, reminding us that we too are foreigners!”
Following Trump in Twiplomacy’s world leader listing is Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, with 30 million followers, while Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is in seventh place with around 10 million followers.
British Prime Minister Theresa May’s account has just 376,000 followers, although the official account of the British Prime Minister, @number10gov, has a substantial 5.33 million followers.
“Twitter is the social media channel of choice for governments and foreign ministries,” Twiplomacy conclude. Their research team, they add, identified 856 Twitter accounts belonging to heads of state and government, and foreign ministers in 178 countries, representing 92 percent of all UN member states, with a combined audience of 356 million followers.
Religious leaders, in contrast, appear to be further behind. With 14.1 million followers the Dalai Lama is the only figure to come anywhere near the Pope’s enormous following.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, has 110,000 followers. The Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Nichols, has 7,221.
PICTURE: Pope Francis' Twitter account in English @pontifex. The account is one of nine covering various various languages
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