Swiss people must be doing something right to rise to the very top of the Nobel ranking in terms of number of Nobel prizes for "hard science" — chemistry, physics and physiology or medicine — per capita. Swiss nationals collected 17 awards, thus positioning the nation in the seventh rank in absolute terms. With an index of 204, or 6 times the median (the average value is given by the red line), Switzerland outperforms by a wide margin in per capita terms such absolute heavy weights as US, UK, Germany or France. In fact, small nations perform astoundingly well, compared with the giants: Sweden, Denmark, Austria, the Netherlands, Israel, New Zealand and Norway are conspicuously placed in the top tier of the ranking.

The very nature of the three disciplines under consideration, requiring an exacting specification of both output and processes to achieve it, makes easier the application of more objective, at least more easily measurable criteria for evaluating performance, than those that can be used in other Nobel prizes such as peace, literature or even the allegedly "soft" science that is economics. Furthermore, the scientists' core tradition of submitting research results to peers to be scrutinized, debated and assessed in open forums, enhances the probability of a fairer grading of scientific achievement. In spite of the fact that today's science is a costly endeavor, financed by syndicates of public and private financiers who can, and often do dictate what research should focus on, and what is and is not good science, performance in these three categories still remains the most reliable available indicator to appreciate the real scientific standings of the various nations.

Sources: see Nobelprize and UN Population Division

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