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.