The Nobel Prize, 1901–2025
0.2% of humanity. 23% of Nobel laureates.
223 of the 990 people awarded a Nobel Prize were Jewish. This site documents what they gave the world, often while being persecuted, excluded or exiled.
If the world were 1,000 people
About 2 would be Jewish (0.19% of the world today).
- Jewish people
- Everyone else
The 990 Nobel laureates, in order
223 are Jewish (22.5%). Each dot is one person, by the year of their first prize.
- Jewish laureates
- Other laureates
Individuals only; the 28 organizations that won the Peace Prize are not counted.
Out of every thousand
Out of 1,000 laureates, 225. Out of 1,000 people, about 2.
Each small square is one person. On the left, 1,000 Nobel laureates: the blue squares are Jewish laureates, and the others are colored by the field of their prize. On the right, 1,000 people chosen at random from the world: the circled black squares are the Jewish people among them.
1,000 Nobel laureates
225of 1,000 are Jewish
1,000 people chosen at random
1.9of 1,000 are Jewish
- Jewish laureates
- Medicine
- Physics
- Chemistry
- Literature
- Peace
- Economics
Other laureates are colored by the field of their prize.
These two squares: 1.9 Jewish people.
Everyone else, 998.1 people
| Group | Squares, out of 1,000 |
|---|---|
| Jewish laureates, of 1,000 Nobel laureates | 225.3 |
| Other laureates, Medicine (172 of 767 actual) | 174 |
| Other laureates, Physics (169 of 767 actual) | 171 |
| Other laureates, Chemistry (160 of 767 actual) | 162 |
| Other laureates, Literature (105 of 767 actual) | 106 |
| Other laureates, Peace (102 of 767 actual) | 103 |
| Other laureates, Economics (59 of 767 actual) | 59 |
| Jewish people, of 1,000 people chosen at random | 1.9 |
If prizes followed population, about 2 of the 1,000 laureate squares would be blue, not 225.
How we computed this
Squares = share × 1,000, filled from the bottom-left, row by row; the last square of each group is filled left to right to its exact fraction. The 767 laureates who are not Jewish are split across the remaining squares in proportion to their 6 prize fields (by first prize). Laureates are individuals only, counted once each, through 2025; population is the latest year in our series.
What if
If Jews were half the world, 98.7% of laureates
Left: the world’s people split in half, black for Jews and sand for everyone else. Right: the laureates you would get if each group kept winning prizes at the same rate per person as it has so far. Blue is Jewish laureates.
If Jews were half the world
Their share of laureates, same per‑person rate
50%
98.7%
- Jews
- Everyone else
- Jewish laureates
- Everyone else
In that world, everyone else, half of humanity, would win only about 1 prize in 79.
How we computed this
Per-person rate r = 78: Jewish laureates per expected Jewish laureate, divided by the same ratio for everyone else, where the expected numbers use the Jewish share of world population in each award’s year (counting 995 awards). With a population share q = 50%, the Jewish share of laureates is q·r ÷ (q·r + (1 − q)) = 98.73%. The 22.5% figure counts people (990 laureates), not awards.
Another way to see it
53 framings, each computed from the data
Streaks
By the odds, the Jewish Nobel record is like the same team winning the Super Bowl every single year for 209 years in a row.
How we computed this
Binomial probability of 223 or more Jewish laureates in n = 995 prizes awarded to individuals, with p = 0.00369, the Jewish share of world population averaged over the award years (time-weighted): about 1 in 10 to the power of 315.3. The NFL has 32 teams; if all were evenly matched, any one team would win a given Super Bowl with probability 1 in 32. Getting it N times in a row has a chance of 1 in (32 to the power of N), so N = 315.3 ÷ log10(32) = 315.3 ÷ 1.505 ≈ 209.
The honest numbers
How far above expectation?
Dividing today’s share of prizes by today’s share of population flatters the result, because Jews were a larger share of the world before the Holocaust. So we lead with a time-weighted comparison that uses the Jewish share of the world in each prize year.
Share of Nobel laureates who are Jewish
22.5%
223 of 990 individual laureates, from 0.19% of the world’s population today.
Time-weighted ratio, the one we lead with
61×
223 Jewish laureates, versus about 3.7 expected from the Jewish share of the world in each prize year. Using today’s shares instead gives 117×, which is easier to quote and less defensible.
Odds under proportional representation
1 in 10 to the power of 315
The chance of 223 or more Jewish laureates if prizes simply tracked population share in each year: about as likely as one team winning the Super Bowl 209 years in a row.
Lives saved by their work
42–119million
A conservative, credited share of the direct outcomes of Jewish laureates’ work, cumulative to 2025, with each outcome counted once. See the impact ledger.
A ratio describes a gap, not its cause. The context section covers the history and the scholarly explanations, which are cultural and historical.
All the numbers, with formulasSee the scale
Numbers you can see
Shares this small and odds this long are hard to feel. These pictures make them visible, and each one says in plain words what it shows.
What chance predicts vs what happened
Chance predicts fewer than 4. The real number is 223.
Imagine every Nobel Prize went to a person picked at random from everyone alive that year. The outlined medals show how many of those winners would be Jewish: fewer than 4. Each filled medal is a real Jewish laureate: 223.
3.7
Expected by chance
the last one is 7/10 of a medal
223
What actually happened
61×the expected number
Every medal is the same size. Filled medals come in blocks of ten.
At the rate chance predicts, it would take about 7,600 years of Nobel Prizes to reach 223 Jewish laureates. It took 125.
How we computed this
For every prize given to a person, we took the Jewish share of the world's population in the year it was awarded and added those shares together. That total is the number of Jewish laureates you would expect if each prize were a random pick from everyone alive. Prizes to organizations are not counted. The 7,600 years is 125 years times 61 (the real number divided by the expected one), rounded to the nearest hundred.
Laureate of the moment
The laureates
223people
Physicists, chemists, physicians, writers, economists and peacemakers, from 1905 to 2025. Every profile is sourced and fact-checked.Meet all 223
By prize
Every category, far above population share
Economics shows the highest share (40%) and peace the lowest (8%). Even the lowest is many times the Jewish share of the world.
Share of laureates who are Jewish, by prize
Individual awards, 1901–2025. Economics has been awarded since 1969.
- Jewish laureates
- All other laureates
Impact
What the work gave humanity
Each profile estimates the real-world outcomes the laureate’s work contributed to, as sourced ranges with a conservative share of credit. Shared outcomes are counted once.
Only the laureates’ own discoveries and their immediate applications.
Lives saved
42–119
million livesCredited share, cumulative to 2025
People fed
1.4–1.6
billion peopleCredited share, cumulative to 2025
Economic value
$0.8–1.1
trillion (2024 US dollars)Credited share, cumulative to 2025
Harms are counted too: about 48,000–73,000 deaths attributed so far, shown alongside the benefits.
Open the impact ledgerAgainst the odds
The prizes, set against what Jews faced
Many Jewish laureates lived and worked through pogroms, quotas, dismissals, exile and genocide. The timeline lines up each year's laureates with the history around them.
Jewish laureates per year, 1905–2025
Shaded bands are historical eras; dots are major events. Hover, or tab in and use the arrow keys, for details.
- Persecution or violence
- Jewish laureates
Tab into the timeline, then use the left and right arrow keys to step through eras, events or prize years, and the up and down arrow keys to switch between those rows. Home and End jump to the first and last item in a row.
Explore
Go deeper
- The laureatesAll 223 people, searchable by prize, decade, country and story.Open
- The numbersShares, time-weighted ratios, a what-if simulator and the odds, with every formula shown.Open
- The impact ledgerLives saved, people fed and value created, with the harms counted alongside.Open
- The contextWorld Jewish population since 1880, persecution timeline, and why the gap exists.Open
- Other anomaliesHow this compares with other famous cases of over-representation.Open
- MethodologyDefinitions, sources, formulas, limits and our correction policy.Open