See how local beauty queens put SA on list of top 10 most beautiful in world

Year in and year out many a publication or website tries to quantify what makes the most beautiful person. A recent study looked into this and found a top 10 that placed Venezuela atop the totem pole of beauty.

The research was conducted by the online coupon platform Wethrift, which analysed the list of title-holders from major international beauty pageants, including runners-up, to determine which countries have the highest beauty scores. Points were assigned based on: three points for title-holders, two for first runners-up, and one point for second runners-up. The total number of points from each country was then aggregated to determine the most beautiful countries based on this.

It includes Miss Universe, Miss World, Miss International, Miss Grand International and Miss Earth pageants, with South America producing 25 title-holders.

Venezuela leads with a beauty score of 127, including 25 title-holders, 17 first runners-up, and 18 second runners-up. Notable winners from Venezuela include Dayana Mendoza, Miss Universe 2008, who later became a successful model and actress.

“International beauty pageants offer fascinating insights into how different countries approach and celebrate beauty. Venezuela, the US and the Philippines’ consistent success in producing title-holders reflects their strong cultural emphasis on these competitions. This data provides an interesting perspective on how nations cultivate talent for these global stages,” said WeThrift's beauty and lifestyle trend expert Nick Drewe.

South Africa made it into the 10th position with 10 second runner-up queens including Lalela Mswane whose reign has been marred by controversy. There were five 1st runners-up with Tamryn Green-Nxumalo one of them. Title holders numbered seven, including Rolene Strauss who scooped the Miss World crown 2014 and Tunzi who won the Miss Universe crown in 2019.