Time Magazine has named German Chancellor Angela Merkel as its "Person of the Year".

The magazine cited her role in Europe's crises over migration and Greek debt.

Merkel had provided "steadfast moral leadership in a world where it is in short supply", editor Nancy Gibbs wrote.

Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was named runner-up and third place went to US presidential hopeful Donald Trump.

Eclectic list

Gibbs wrote of Merkel: "For asking more of her country than most politicians would dare, for standing firm against tyranny as well as expedience and for providing steadfast moral leadership in a world where it is in short supply, Angela Merkel is 'Time's Person of the Year'."

Citing the refugee and Greek economic crises, along with the Paris terror attacks, Gibbs said: "Each time Merkel stepped in. Germany would bail Greece out, on her strict terms. It would welcome refugees as casualties of radical Islamist savagery, not carriers of it.

Time Person of the Year 2015

Angela Merkel - German chancellor since the 2005 election, leader of the CDU

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi - head of the Islamic State militant group

Donald Trump - business magnate seeking Republican nomination as US presidential candidate

Black Lives Matter - activist group campaigning against violence towards black people, notably in the US

Hassan Rouhani - president of Iran since 2013

Travis Kalanick - US entrepreneur, founder of the Uber transportation network firm

Caitlyn Jenner - born Bruce Jenner, became 1976 Olympic decathlon champion, officially changed name and gender in 2015

"And it would deploy troops abroad in the fight against ISIS [Islamic State]. You can agree with her or not, but she is not taking the easy road. Leaders are tested only when people don't want to follow."

The magazine also noted her leadership during what it called Russian President Vladimir Putin's "creeping theft of Ukraine".

Merkel, 61, joins an eclectic list of former winners, including Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Mahatma Gandhi, Winston Churchill and Richard Nixon.

She is only the fourth woman since 1927 to be named winner and the first in 29 years.

Last year's award went to medics fighting the Ebola outbreak in western Africa.