Nobel Prizes by population size

A BBC article compares the number of Nobel prizes won by countries. It is rubbish. The list they produced was;
1. US  323
2. UK  117
3 Germany 103
4 France 57
5 Sweden 28

The article suggests that this information produces "a definitive list of the nations with the biggest brains". Hmm.
It certainly produces a list showing which country generates the most Nobel prizes. It may even point to which country overall is producing the highest number of top scientists. But it doesn't in anyway allow us to compare the countries on a like for like basis because of the widely different populations of each country.

A fairer comparison would be to ask how many Nobel prizes each country produces on a per capita basis. This is a much better indicator of how well each country taps into the potential of it's population ( assuming that Nobel prizes actually measure that which is another issue of course.)

Comparing populations we get

1. US Pop 307M
2. Germany Pop 82M
3. France Pop 62M
4. UK Pop 61M
5. Sweden Pop 9M
( rounded figures )

Now we can calculate the number of Nobels awarded per Million head of population

1 Sweden  3.1 NpM
2 UK 1.92 NpM
3 Germany 1.26 NpM
4 US 1.05 NpM
5 France 0.92 NpM

What emerges is a very different picture. Sweden tops the list by a long way for the number of Nobel prizes per capita of population. One wonders if the origins of the Nobel prize are playing any influence here? Interestingly the UK has gained more Nobels per capita than the US which now trails in fourth place behind Germany.

This is still a very rough and ready approach of course. Population sizes are not static but it certainly gives a more accurate picture than the BBC one.