As of 2025, the US has more Nobel laureates than any other nation and more than the next five nations combined.

The 2024 Nobel Prize in Economics winners, Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson, and James A. Robinson, were honored for their compelling research on the factors that influence a nation’s prosperity. Spanning two decades, their work presents insights into how societal organization can explain the income discrepancies between different countries. In general, their research shows that economic success favors more free and open societies. Listen for more fascinating insights.

At the age of 35, Dr. King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his nonviolent leadership in the Civil Rights movement, making him the youngest recipient at the time.

The public school system is ranked as the eighth best by Forbes, and 56 of its faculty are members in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. See more figures on the school here.

Examples of the phenomenon, known as Nobelitis or Nobel disease, include promoting psychic research, harmful practices like eugenics, and seeing talking raccoons. Increased external pressures after a win and a greater spotlight may contribute to developing or exposing these beliefs.

Since its inception in 1917, over 2,000 Pulitzers have been awarded to writers published in the US, from poetry and fiction to investigative reporting and history books. You can explore the winners by decade and year, or see the winners by category, including those no longer used.

A trio of scientists won the Nobel in Physiology or Medicine that year, but they performed their award-worthy work beginning about two decades before winning the prize. This announcement includes details about the science and notes that the three scientists will equally share the 11 million Swedish kronor (almost $1.2M).

The Programme for International Student Assessment, administered every three years by the OECD to 15-year-olds, scores US students below the OECD average in math (465 vs. 472) and only slightly above average in science (499 vs. 485). These figures place US pupils in the lower half of developed nations.

This US News article ranks the 20 universities with the largest endowments in the United States, based on data from the 2022 fiscal year. Harvard tops the list at more than $50B, followed by Yale, Stanford, and Princeton. Check out this snapshot of how these financial resources support academic programs, research, and student aid.

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The US has more billionaires than any other country, and they are a mix of media moguls, entrepreneurs, and entertainers. This list ranks the 10 richest Americans by their popularity. The oracle of Omaha, Warren Buffett, ranks highest in favorability at 52%, while Google cofounder Sergey Brin ranks lowest—likely because 72% of respondents didn't recognize his name.

Many Nobel Prizes for Economics go to economists for their sophisticated quantification and large-scale studies and surveys. And while Northwestern's Mokyr has conducted such studies, his published works are more traditional history, where he argues for the significance of ideas to the development of material economics.

A 2016 survey of 38 countries found that the US scored highest in support for free expression, with 71% of Americans saying people should be able to say what they want without government censorship, more than in any other nation surveyed.

Buffett was awarded the medal for his success as an investor and commitment to philanthropy alongside author Maya Angelou, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, and Congressman John Lewis, among others. It’s perhaps the highest honor a civilian can receive.

Although scientific discoveries involve experimentation, analysis, and collaborations among many individuals across a variety of locations, some observations, advancements, and breakthroughs have their origins in facilities within the US. These include the polio vaccine in Pennsylvania, the breathalyzer in Indiana, the observation of Pluto in Arizona, and the invention of nylon and Teflon in Delaware.

Recent data from the Federal Reserve shows that the richest people in America own 93% of all the country's stock—the highest level ever recorded. Meanwhile, the bottom 50% of Americans held just 1% of all stocks.

The Pulitzer Prize brings prestige but inconsistent financial benefits. For nonfiction writers, receiving the award does increase sales, but only modestly. The big winners are the fiction writers, some of whom have seen sales double after a win.

The prestigious literary awards also include two prizes for photography: one for features and another for breaking news. Recipients have captured some of history’s most famous photos, including the iconic photo of US Marines raising the flag atop Mount Suribachi in Iwo Jima (by Joseph Rosenthal) and the legendary photo of Babe Ruth on the day of his final game (by Nat Fein).

Even before his 2016 Nobel Prize, critics often wrote about Bob Dylan with a seriousness typically reserved for literary figures. In this critical analysis, Jones Hogsed continues the tradition, analyzing Dylan's vision of America alongside Walt Whitman's.

From fabricated articles to fiction that inspired FBI surveillance, these are five of the most controversial moments in Pulitzer Prize history. Among them is the Pulitzer board's decision not to give novelist Sinclair Lewis the 1921 award for fiction. This snub led the author of "Main Street" to become the first Pulitzer recipient to reject the prize in 1926.

Alexander Fleming, Howard Florey, and Ernst Chain received the 1945 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovering and developing penicillin.