10 Countries that Have Won the Most Nobel Prizes

Here is a fresh update on countries that have won the most Nobel Prizes, one of the most renowned prizes in the world.

Nobel Prize bears the name of Alfred Nobel, a man of great knowledge and many interests. He is most famous for his invention of dynamite, but apart from that he was also a scientist, poet, philosopher, he was fluent in several languages, and was interested in social issues of his time. Nobel Prize was established in 1901, just several years after Nobel died. In his testament, he left almost all of his fortune for establishing prizes for many fields: physics, chemistry, philosophy, literature… And they were all included under a well-known name – the Nobel Prize. The Nobel Day is celebrated on 10 December.

Nobel Prize is being awarded each year in Stockholm and Oslo in several fields we have mentioned above. Interestingly, there were some nominees through the history of Nobel Prize who didn’t want to accept the award. To see their reasons, check out our article on 6 Nobel Prize Winners Who Declined the Prize. Apart from those who willingly declined the prize, some were forced to decline it. That was around the WW2, when Adolf Hitler forbade three laureates to receive the prize.

We gained the figures for countries that have won the most Nobel prizes from the official Nobel Prize site. There were also countries that do not exist anymore, like Austria-Hungary, Prussia or USSR, so we incorporated winners from areas of former countries to those countries that they would have belonged to now, like Germany or Poland for example (according to the information from the site that notes which countries are those now). We have also checked out WorldAtlas and the Telegraph for more interesting facts and compared areas in which Nobel Prize was obtained for each country they mention.

According to official Nobel Prize website, up to this day, 579 Prizes were awarded to 911 laureates. There are more laureates than awards because many of the awards are multiple. In this article the figures we provide are for the laureates. Let’s see then which countries have won the most Nobel Prizes:

10. Netherlands

Nobel Prize winners: 18

The Netherlands has won Nobel Prizes mostly in fields of physics and chemistry. The first winner of Nobel Prize in chemistry was Jacobus Henricus van ‘t Hoff, a theoretical chemist.

9. Italy

Nobel Prize winners: 19

Italy has won the most awards in the field of literature, the first Nobel Prize being given to Giosue Carducci in 1906, just one year before his death.

8. Japan

Nobel Prize winners: 24

Japan won the most awards in the fields of physics and chemistry. The first Japanese awarded with the Nobel Prize in the field of physics in 1949 was theoretical physician Hideki Yukawa.

7. Poland

Nobel Prize winners: 26

From all the countries that Poland once belonged to, there are 29 Nobel laureates who won the award. The most famous one is Maria Skłodowska Curie. She is one of few people who were awarded twice, in her case the fields of chemistry and physics (in 1903 and 1911).

6. Russia

Nobel Prize winners: 26

The first Nobel Prize winner from Russia was Ivan Petrovich Pavlov, who was awarded in the field of medicine in 1904. The first Russian Nobel Prize winner in literature was Ivan Bunnin. Another literature laureate was Mikhail Sholokhov, one of few people who have gotten the award for specific work, in his case that was Quietly Flows the Don.

5. Sweden

Nobel Prize winners: 29

Of course, Sweden has to be among the top countries that have won the most Nobel Prizes, since it is the home country of the award. Sweden has won most Nobel Prizes in the fields of medicine and literature.

4. France

 Nobel Prize winners: 54

We are continuing our list of countries that have won the most Nobel Prizes with France that is the leading country in the world for winning Nobel Prizes in literature. Some of the French -laureates in the field of literature are: Sully Prudhomme (awarded the first Nobel Prize in Literature in 1901), Henri Bergson (1927), Albert Camus (1957)… Jean-Paul Sartre was also nominated for the Award, but he willingly refused it.

3. Germany

Nobel Prize winners: 80

Germany has given one of the most famous Nobel Prize winners, who was also one of the greatest physicians ever known. You’ve guessed, it’s Albert Einstein. He won the prize in 1922 in the field of theoretical physics. Also, first Nobel prizes ever for medicine and physics were awarded to German scientists: Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen for the invention of X-ray and Emil von Behring for composing a serum for diphtheria.

2. UK

Nobel Prize winners: 94

The UK has won the most Nobel Prizes in the field of medicine. Some famous people who won Nobel Prize were Winston Churchill (literature), Alexander Fleming (medicine), Peter Higgs (physics).

1. USA

Nobel Prize winners: 259

With an outstanding figure of 259 prizes, USA is the first among the countries that have won the most Nobel Prizes. As for Nobel Prizes in general, most of them were also awarded for physics in the US. Fresh Nobel Laureate is Bob Dylan “for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition” who was awarded for literature in 2016.