Silvio Berlusconi

About Silvio Berlusconi

Silvio Berlusconi (1936–2023) was a highly influential Italian politician and media magnate who served four terms as Prime Minister of Italy, making him the country's longest-serving post-war premier. His historical importance stems from fundamentally reshaping Italy's political and media landscape over several decades, earning him the #507 rank in MIT's Historical Popularity Index. Beyond his political career, he was a dominant figure in Italian business, controlling major television networks and founding the media conglomerate Mediaset.

In 2025, Berlusconi registers 719K annualized Wikipedia views, resulting in an Attention Gap ratio of approximately 1x, suggesting his online visibility is closely aligned with his historical importance as ranked by HPI. This contrasts sharply with some contemporaries; for instance, he receives significantly less modern attention than fellow politician Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (1.6M views) or even the modern celebrity Richard Burton (2.4M views), despite Berlusconi holding a slightly higher historical importance rank (#507 vs. #593 and #898, respectively).

Despite his death in 2023, Berlusconi's online presence shows slight vitality, with a Year-over-Year Change of +0.3% and a positive 2025 Momentum score of +9% (comparing Q1 to Q3 traffic), indicating sustained, if modest, public interest in his legacy.