What Countries Have Received the Most Nobel Prizes?
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If it takes a village to raise a child, then it might be said that it takes a country to raise winners of Nobel Prizes. Nobel Prizes often are thought to confer honor not only on the individual winners, but also on their country of origin. This is not always the case. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn won the prize for literature but his writing caused him to be exiled from the Soviet Union. Thus the honor conferred was more of a slap in the face to the now defunct USSR.
Usually, most countries have a good-spirited competition regarding their numbers of winners of Nobel Prizes. The United States has clearly led the pack with over 260 Nobel Prizes. The United Kingdom does not hold nearly as many in the second place with just over 90 Nobel Prizes. Germany currently holds 61 Nobel Prizes. France and Switzerland hold 28 and 22 respectively. Sweden and Russia both can boast of greater than 10 Nobel Prizes. The Netherlands, Denmark and Japan each hold less than 10.
However, in evaluating the numbers, some are concerned that the US is losing its ground, particularly in the science fields over the last 15 years. Americans earning Nobel Prizes for science earned the most during the 1960s. Though US citizens still earn slightly over 50% of the Nobel Prizes in science, this is a great deal less than in previous years.
Some feel that these awards represent a litmus test for a country’s success in producing innovators and developers. They point to the decreasing number of Nobel Prizes to Americans as representative of the US falling behind in crucial development of sciences. These figures are not proof alone, and may merely mean that other countries are now catching up and building on scientific development. Britain and Japan are now second and third in science Nobel Prizes, in a measurement of the last 15 years.
Nobel Prizes might also be analyzed by gender, or race, as opposed to country. However, in the last 10-15 years, one can look at the honorees and see a very specific attempt to include women, and races that have not been adequately represented. This is not always the case, but in another 20-25 years, we may see a more equally balanced grouping of winners of Nobel Prizes. Much of this will be based on the economic and educational opportunities available in individual countries, for people of both genders, and for those in developing countries of a particular race.
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13
To anon6502. I disagree with you. USA is without any question the dominating scientific power today. American scientists grabbed almost all of 2009 Nobel prizes. I'm from Costa Rica and was given a scholarship to Stanford University. I had the choice to go to England but i preferred to study in America which is the cradle of innovation and best universities worldwide. The world's greatest minds are studying in the world's best universities which are in America. 60 percent percent of the best top 100 universities are in the USA. The USA also invests more than the five next countries combined in I&D. - anon50738
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What are you saps arguing about? Who's better? Who has won more awards. Who gives a crap? We're all in this world together. - anon48139
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"The USA was built on European immigration/brains. So for Americans to keep harping on that they lead the world - wake up!"
By that logic, (for evolutionists) the African continent should take the credit, because thats where we all came from, and (for creationists) all Nobel Prizes should be given to God. Also, if Europe is so academically superior as you say, why is there the "Brain Drain" effect? The UK/Europe are clearly not in that state of devastation that they were in just after World War II, so shouldn't American academics be going to Europe? - anon47646
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I'm not trying to be arrogant or wind people up but the UK's innovation, inventions, Nobel Prizes, popular culture (music, literature, Tv, etc) is unsurpassed for such a tiny island. Anyone who really knows what they're talking about - and is unbiased - will be aware of the UK's fantastic history. The USA may have more prizes, but that doesn't explain the whole story.
The USA imported many, many UK and German intellectuals. In the UK it is known as the 'brain drain'. The USA'S technological prowess is a direct result of European brains, economical power, and weakening of Germany, the UK and Japan as a result of the war - the UK was bankrupted. In two World Wars it went from being the richest, most powerful nation in the world to a country on it's knees. Only the USA benefited from massive economical growth/wealth during WW2. I don't envy the USA's super-state status. For 200 years the UK was the superpower, now it's the USA's turn, next it will be China (God forbid!) Also, the inventions, innovation and influence the UK has imparted over the last 400 years is - without question - unsurpassed. And that's a fact! The USA was built on European immigration/brains. So for Americans to keep harping on that they lead the world - wake up!
- anon40046
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Pretty inane discussion about the UK. The UK and USA have both good (and shared!) intellectual traditions and good Nobel prize records. Just for good measure, though, I note that the internet (on which Wiki, Facebook, etc. works) was invented by a Brit (Berners Lee) but in the US! Not certain if the "future" is China and India - this is just defeatist. - anon38319
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How silly. Youtube, Wikipedia, Facebook, Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, etc.--the currency of contemporary living--were developed and commercialized in America, not the U.K.. The technology attendant to the armed services alone dwarfs the contributions of the U.K. We have scores of world leading research institutions. You have a small handful. The U.K. indulges in an easy mockery of the U.S., but is not in the same league and is hardly likely to be. - anon31143
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I strongly advise you all to read Robert Marc Friedmans The Politics of Excellence: Behind the Nobel Prize in Science, 2001. - anon28457
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I think you just proved Emants point even further. - anon20041
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Wrong. Google St. Lucia (Sir Arthur Lewis and Sir Dereck Walcott) 2 winners per 180,000 population. 11.11 nobel prizes per 1m. - anon19854
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Sweden got 29 prizes - 8 mill inhabitants -> over 3 prizes pr 1 million people.
Strange how few prizes the french got, considering all the great literature that country has given us. Not to mention russia. - Emant
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with anon's logic - Sweden would be the dominant country in the world, with the highest prize/people-ratio. Not a bad word about Sweden - or anon or the Uk for that matter. - Emant
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To aron: Us still grabs around 50% of the science-prizes every year, even tho they only got 5% of the worlds population + many non-Us laureates are educated in the Us. Considering the Us isolated itself for almost 50 years last century, 260 prizes is extreme. Young russians, indians, etc wants to study at Stanford, CalTech and MiT. It's fair to say that Us is the dominating scientific power today, as it is when it comes to culture, inventions and sport. The future however will - in case of science - belong to China and India, not Us or Uk. - anon11747
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The USA is 5 times bigger in population than the UK, but has only won 3 times as many nobel prizes. The USA has 0.85 nobel prizes per 1m citizens whilst the UK has 1.5 per 1m citizens. Almost twice as many proportionately. Britain is also increasing its number of wins at a higher rate. Britain effectively leads the way in the western world with regard to invention, innovation, art, literature and diplomacy. A huge proportion of the world's other Nobel laureates were educated in British schools and universities. - anon6502
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Tricia Ellis-Christensen
Last Modified: 31 October 2009
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