Nobel prize winners far more likely to come from wealthy families highlighting inequality in the sciences
By 
Julia Robinson2024-10-29T14:30:00
Winners today come, on average, from less wealthy families than when the prize began but there is still a long way to go
Major discoveries and significant progress may be being lost because of unequal opportunity in the sciences, a study looking at the childhood socioeconomic status of Nobel laureates has concluded. However, over the more than 120 years the Nobel prize has been running, some progress has been made in creating opportunity for people who do not have wealthy parents.
The researchers behind the study, who were based in the US and UK, set out to study opportunity by collecting biographical data on Nobel prize winners from 1901–2023 covering 739 winners in chemistry, physics, medicine and economics. For each winner they collected demographic information and parents’ occupation as a measure of the laureate’s childhood socioeconomic status.