List of countries by Nobel laureates per capita

This article includes lists of sovereign countries, territories, and supranational unions by Nobel laureates per capita. That is, lists of said entities ranked by their Nobel Prize winners in relation to their current population. The article does not account for a country's population at the time each prize was awarded. Nobel Prizes have been awarded over more than 100 years, during which time national populations have varied very significantly. Because the population of an entity is significantly higher than its Nobel laureates, the figures have been multiplied by 10 million. Thus, the number on the rightmost column should be read as the number of Nobel laureates of an entity for every 10 million of its population.

The figures include all Nobel Prizes awarded to individuals up to and including 14 October 2019.

Note: Only sovereign countries are ranked; unranked entities are marked in italics.

All prizes

All five prizes (Chemistry, Literature, Peace, Physics, and Physiology or Medicine) and the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences are considered.

Rank Entity Nobel
laureates[1]		 Population
(2018)[2]		 Laureates/
10 million
— Faroe Islands149,489202.065
1 Saint Lucia2179,667111.317
2 Luxembourg2590,32133.880
3  Switzerland288,544,03432.771
4 Sweden309,982,70930.052
5 Iceland1337,78029.605
6 Austria228,751,82025.138
7 Denmark145,754,35624.329
8 Norway135,353,36324.284
9 United Kingdom13366,573,50419.429
10 East Timor21,324,09415.105
11 Ireland74,803,74814.572
12 Israel128,452,84114.196
13 Germany11082,293,45713.527
14 Hungary139,688,84713.417
15 United States385326,766,74811.721
16 Netherlands2117,084,45911.707
17 France7065,233,27110.664
— European Union[3]372444,697,1048.005
18 Finland55,542,5179.021
19 Belgium1011,498,5198.697
20 Cyprus11,189,0858.410
21 Trinidad and Tobago11,372,5987.285
22 Canada2536,953,7656.765
23 New Zealand34,749,5986.316
24 Bosnia and Herzegovina23,503,5545.708
25 Latvia11,929,9385.182
26 Poland1938,104,8324.986
27 Australia1224,772,2474.844
28 Slovenia12,081,2604.805
29 North Macedonia12,085,0514.796
30 Czech Republic510,625,2504.706
31 Liberia24,853,5164.121
32 Lithuania12,876,4753.476
33 Italy2059,290,9693.373
— Tibet[4]13,310,8363.020
34 Croatia14,164,7832.401
35 Japan28127,185,3322.202
36 Belarus29,452,1132.116
37 Romania419,580,6342.043
38 Costa Rica14,953,1992.019
39 Palestine15,052,7761.979
40 Portugal210,291,1961.943
41 Greece211,142,1611.795
42 South Africa1057,398,4211.742
43 Spain846,397,4521.724
44 Russia23143,964,7091.598
45 Bulgaria17,036,8481.421
— Hong Kong17,428,8871.346
— World[5]9197,632,819,3251.204
46 Guatemala217,245,3461.160
47 Argentina544,688,8641.119
48 Chile218,197,2091.099
49 Azerbaijan19,923,9141.008
50 Algeria242,008,0540.476
51 Ukraine244,009,2140.454
52 Taiwan123,694,0890.422
53 Colombia249,464,6830.404
54 Egypt499,375,7410.403
55 South Korea251,164,4350.391
56 Yemen128,915,2840.346
57 Ghana129,463,6430.339
58 Venezuela132,381,2210.309
59 Peru132,551,8150.307
60 Morocco136,191,8050.276
61 Iraq139,339,7530.254
62 Turkey281,916,8710.244
63 Iran282,011,7350.244
64 Mexico3130,759,0740.229
65 Kenya150,950,8790.196
66 Myanmar153,855,7350.186
67 DR Congo184,004,9890.119
68 Vietnam196,491,1460.104
69 Pakistan2200,813,8180.100
70 Ethiopia1109,224,410[6]0.092
71 India111,354,051,8540.081
72 China91,415,045,9280.064
73 Bangladesh1166,368,1490.060
74 Nigeria1195,875,2370.051

By United Nations geoscheme
Region Countries Nobel
laureates[1]		 Population
(2019)[6]		 Laureates/
10 million
Europe48561747,182,8157.508
  Northern Europe13209105,768,53219.760
  Western Europe9256195,522,41213.093
  Southern Europe1637152,446,9502.427
  Eastern Europe1082293,444,9212.011
Americas554291,014,721,9004.228
  Northern America5408366,600,94411.129
  Latin America and the Caribbean5021648,120,9560.324
    Caribbean28343,335,0060.692
    Central America86177,586,5250.338
    South America1412427,199,4250.281
Oceania231542,128,0483.561
  Australia/New Zealand21529,986,2625.002
  Oceania (ex. Aus. and NZ)21012,141,7860.000
    Melanesia5010,918,5340.000
    Micronesia70543,4830.000
    Polynesia90679,7690.000
World[5]2369197,713,468,2051.191
Africa58241,308,064,1760.183
  Northern Africa77241,780,7650.290
  Sub-Saharan Africa51171,066,283,4110.159
    Southern Africa51066,629,8941.501
    Western Africa174391,440,1470.102
    Middle Africa91174,308,4270.057
    Eastern Africa202433,904,9430.046
Asia52814,601,371,2660.176
  Western Asia1819275,324,7930.690
  Eastern Asia9421,672,611,1200.251
  Southern Asia9161,918,211,3960.083
  South-Eastern Asia114662,011,8460.060
  Central Asia5073,212,1110.000

Scientific prizes

Only the awards for Chemistry, Physics, Physiology or Medicine, and the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences are considered.

Rank Entity Nobel
laureates[1]		 Population
(2018)[2]		 Laureates/
10 million
— Faroe Islands149,489202.065
1 Saint Lucia1179,66755.659
2 Luxembourg2590,32133.880
3  Switzerland258,544,03429.260
4 Austria188,751,82020.567
5 Denmark105,754,35617.378
6 Sweden179,982,70917.029
7 United Kingdom10966,573,50416.373
8 Norway85,353,36314.944
9 Germany9382,293,45711.180
10 Netherlands1917,084,45911.121
11 United States350326,766,74810.711
12 Israel88,452,8419.464
13 Cyprus11,189,0858.410
14 Hungary119,688,8478.257
— European Union[7]248443,123,6005.574
15 New Zealand34,749,5986.316
16 France3965,233,2715.979
17 Canada2236,953,7655.953
18 Finland35,542,5175.413
19 Belgium611,498,5195.218
20 Latvia11,929,9385.182
21 Slovenia12,081,2604.805
22 Australia1124,772,2474.440
23 Ireland24,803,7484.163
24 Lithuania12,876,4753.476
25 Bosnia and Herzegovina13,503,5542.854
26 Czech Republic310,625,2502.823
27 Croatia14,164,7832.401
28 Italy1359,290,9692.193
29 Japan24127,185,3321.887
— Hong Kong17,428,8871.346
30 Poland538,104,8321.312
31 Russia16143,964,7091.111
32 Belarus19,452,1131.058
33 Romania219,580,6341.021
34 Azerbaijan19,923,9141.008
35 Portugal110,291,1960.972
— World[5]6977,632,819,3250.913
36 South Africa457,398,4210.697
37 Argentina344,688,8640.671
38 Spain246,397,4520.431
39 Taiwan123,694,0890.422
40 Venezuela132,381,2210.309
41 Morocco136,191,8050.276
42 Algeria142,008,0540.238
43 Ukraine144,009,2140.227
45 Turkey181,916,8710.122
46 Egypt199,375,7410.101
47 Mexico1130,759,0740.076
48 India71,354,051,8540.052
49 Pakistan1200,813,8180.050
50 Brazil1210,867,9540.047
51 China51,415,045,9280.035
52 South Korea051,164,4350

Inclusion criteria

The list of Nobel laureates by country was compiled by BBC News using the following criteria:[1]

  • Prizes are allocated to the country/countries stated on the winner's biography on the website of the Nobel Prize committee (www.nobelprize.org).
  • Where the website mentions multiple countries in relation to a prize winner (country of birth; country of citizenship; country of residence at time of award) each of those countries is credited as having won the prize.
  • Where a prize has multiple winners, the country (or countries) of each winner are credited.
  • Prizes which were declined by the winner are included.
  • Prizes won by organisations are not allocated to countries.
  • Winners from Belarus and Ukraine are not credited to Russia. Winners born in what was then Poland but is now Ukraine are credited to Poland.

Note: The BBC News figures included all Nobel Prizes awarded up to and including 8 October 2010. Nobel prizes announced after that date were added generally following the same criteria outlined above (see Updates section below for details).

Corrections

This is a list of corrections made to the original figures provided by BBC News:

  • No award was attributed to Luxembourg, but, according to the Nobel Prize website, Gabriel Lippmann (Physics, 1908) was born in that country.[8]
  • No award was attributed to Azerbaijan, but, according to the Nobel Prize website, Lev Landau (Physics, 1962) was born in the area that is now held by that country (then part of the Russian Empire).[9] The justification for this correction is that BBC News did credit Latvia for Wilhelm Ostwald's 1909 Chemistry Prize, even though his birthplace—Latvia's capital Riga—was by the time he was born (1853) also part of the Russian Empire.
  • Australia was credited with only one Nobel laureate in Physics, but up to and including 8 October 2010 there were two Physics laureates associated with that country: William Lawrence Bragg (1915) and Aleksandr Prokhorov (1964), both of whom were born there according to the Nobel Prize website.[10][11]
  • BBC News correctly acknowledges South Korea as having two Nobel laureates associated with that country, but due an error in its spreadsheet only one of them is assigned to a particular prize (Peace, 2000). The one that was not specified is Charles J. Pedersen (Chemistry, 1987), who was born in Busan, according to the Nobel Prize website.[12]

Updates

This section details how Nobel Prizes announced after 8 October 2010 were added.

  • 2010 update:
    • Economic Sciences: 2 to the United States and 1 each to Cyprus, Denmark and the United Kingdom.
  • 2011 update:
    • Chemistry: 1 to Israel.
    • Literature: 1 to Sweden.
    • Peace: 2 to Liberia and 1 to Yemen.
    • Physics: 3 to the United States and 1 to Australia.
    • Physiology or Medicine: 2 to the United States and 1 each to Canada, France and Luxembourg.
    • Economic Sciences: 2 to the United States.
  • 2012 update:
    • Physiology or Medicine: 1 each to Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States.
    • Physics: 1 each to France, Morocco and the United States.
    • Chemistry: 2 to the United States.
    • Literature: 1 to China.
    • Peace: Not applicable.
    • Economic Sciences: 2 to the United States.
  • 2013 update:
    • Physiology or Medicine: 2 to the United States and 1 to Germany.
    • Physics: 1 each to Belgium and the United Kingdom.
    • Chemistry: 3 to the United States, 2 to Israel, and 1 each to Austria, South Africa and the United Kingdom.
    • Literature: 1 to Canada.
    • Peace: Not applicable.
    • Economic Sciences: 3 to the United States.
  • 2014 update:
    • Physiology or Medicine: 2 to Norway and 1 each to the United Kingdom and the United States.
    • Physics: 3 to Japan and 1 to the United States.
    • Chemistry: 2 to the United States and 1 each to Germany and Romania.
    • Literature: 1 to France.
    • Peace: 1 each to India, Pakistan and the United Kingdom.
    • Economic Sciences: 1 to France.
  • 2015 update:
    • Physiology or Medicine: 1 each to China, Ireland, Japan and the United States.
    • Physics: 1 each to Canada and Japan.
    • Chemistry: 2 to the United States and 1 each to Sweden, Turkey and the United Kingdom.
    • Literature: 1 each to Belarus and Ukraine.
    • Peace: Not applicable.
    • Economic Sciences: 1 each to the United Kingdom and the United States.
  • 2016 update:
    • Physiology or Medicine: 1 to Japan.
    • Physics: 3 each to the United Kingdom and the United States.
    • Chemistry: 1 each to France, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States.
    • Peace: 1 to Colombia.
    • Economic Sciences: 2 to the United States and 1 each to Finland and the United Kingdom.
    • Literature: 1 to the United States.
  • 2017 update:
    • Physiology or Medicine: 3 to the United States.
    • Physics: 3 to the United States and 1 to Germany.
    • Chemistry: 1 each to Germany, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States.
    • Literature: 1 each to Japan and the United Kingdom.
    • Peace: Not applicable.
    • Economic Sciences: 1 to the United States.
  • 2018 update:
    • Physiology or Medicine: 1 each to Japan and the United States.
    • Physics: 2 to the United States and 1 each to Canada and France.
    • Chemistry: 2 to the United States and 1 to the United Kingdom.
    • Literature: Awarded in 2019.
    • Peace: 1 each to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Germany and Iraq.
    • Economic Sciences: 2 to the United States.
  • 2019 update:
    • Physiology or Medicine: 2 to the United States and 1 to the United Kingdom.
    • Physics: 2 to Switzerland and 1 each to Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States.
    • Chemistry: 2 to the United States and 1 each to Germany, Japan and the United Kingdom.
    • Literature: 1 each to Austria, France and Poland.
    • Peace: 1 to Ethiopia.
    • Economic Sciences: 3 to the United States, and 1 each to France and India.

See also

References
  1. "Which country has the best brains?". BBC News. 2010-10-10. Retrieved 2010-10-10.
  2. "Total Population - Both Sexes". World Population Prospects, the 2017 Revision. United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division, Population Estimates and Projections Section. 21 June 2017. Retrieved 11 October 2018.
  3. Includes every credit given separately to each of the 28 EU member states. It does not include the Peace Prize given to the EU in 2012.
  4. A population estimate for 2018 was calculated using the average annual population growth in the Tibet Autonomous Region between the 2000 and 2010 censuses. 2000 census population: 2,616,329 (Source: National Bureau of Statistics of China). 2010 census population: 3,002,166 (Source: Xinhua News Agency). Formula used: 3002166+(2018-2010)*(3002166-2616329)/(2010-2000)=3310835.6.
  5. In this case each Nobel laureate was only counted once. Source: "Nobel Prize Facts". Nobel Foundation. Retrieved 2019-10-11.
  6. "Total Population - Both Sexes". World Population Prospects, the 2019 Revision. United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division, Population Estimates and Projections Section. 28 August 2019. Retrieved 11 October 2019.
  7. Includes every credit given separately to any of the 27 EU member states.
  8. "Gabriel Lippmann – Biography". Nobel Foundation. Retrieved 2011-10-11.
  9. "Lev Landau – Biography". Nobel Foundation. Retrieved 2012-06-19.
  10. "Lawrence Bragg – Biography". Nobel Foundation. Retrieved 2012-08-16.
  11. "Aleksandr M. Prokhorov – Biography". Nobel Foundation. Retrieved 2012-08-16.
  12. "Charles J. Pedersen – Facts — NobelPrize.org". Nobel Foundation. Retrieved 2019-10-14.

Further reading
  • Emeka Nwabunnia, Bishop Emeka Ebisi (2007), The Nobel prize (1901-2000): handbook of landmark records, University Press of America, ISBN 978-0-7618-3573-8
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