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The official Nobel Prize data is available through Nobel Prize Outreach’s Linked Data specification, which describes prizes and laureates dating back to 1901. Its figures are not interchangeable: an award, a laureate-award record, a unique person, and an organisation are different counting units. In its 2025 annual report, the Nobel Foundation lists 1,026 laureates: 990 individuals and 28 organisations, with the higher laureate total reflecting repeat awards.
Where the official Nobel Prize data comes from
Nobel Prize Outreach describes its Linked Data dataset as the authoritative information about Nobel Prizes and laureates since 1901. The specification is titled Nobel Prizes as Linked Data, version 2.0, dated June 29, 2021. It explains how the information is structured; it is not itself the source of the 2025 totals below.
For recent cumulative figures, consult the Nobel Foundation’s Annual report 2025, published in 2026. The award-instance total cited here comes from Nobel Prize Outreach’s Nobel Week Stockholm 2025 media information, dated December 5, 2025.
What one record represents
The Linked Data model separates three related entities. This lets a shared prize, a repeat recipient, and an organisation be represented without collapsing them into one kind of count.
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- Author: Ishiguro, Kazuo.
- Publisher: Vintage International
- Pages: 245
- Publication Date: 1990-09-12
- Edition: First Edition
| Entity | What it describes | How to interpret it |
|---|---|---|
| NobelPrize | A prize, with properties such as category, year, and motivation. | Use it to describe the prize itself, not the number of recipients. |
| LaureateAward | A record connecting a laureate to a prize; it can include the recipient’s share. | Use it when counting recipient-award relationships. A shared prize can have multiple such records. |
| Laureate | The recipient entity: a person or an organisation, potentially with biographical or affiliation information. | A laureate is not necessarily a unique individual: one person may be associated with more than one award. |
For example, a prize shared by three people is one prize award instance, but it involves three laureates and three laureate-award relationships. If one of those people later receives another prize, that person is still one individual but has another laureate-award relationship.
How to read the reported totals through 2025
The Nobel Foundation’s 2025 annual report and Nobel Prize Outreach’s 2025 media information report related but distinct cumulative figures. Keep the reporting year and unit attached to each number.
| Reported figure | What it counts | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 1,026 laureates through 2025 | Laureate total, including repeat awards and organisations. | The Nobel Foundation, Annual report 2025, published 2026. |
| 990 individuals and 28 organisations through 2025 | The report’s breakdown of the laureate total by recipient type. The 990 are individuals, not a count of all laureate-award records. | The Nobel Foundation, Annual report 2025, published 2026. |
| 99 recipients of the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel through 2025 | Recipients in this prize category, as reported by the Foundation. | The Nobel Foundation, Annual report 2025, published 2026. |
| 633 prize awards since 1901 | Award instances, not unique people. Nobel Prize Outreach reports this alongside the 1,026 laureates. | Nobel Prize Outreach, Nobel Week Stockholm 2025 media information, December 5, 2025. |
Why counts differ
A prize can have several recipients
A prize can be shared by up to three people. A single award instance can therefore correspond to multiple laureates and multiple laureate-award records.
A recipient can receive more than one prize
When a person receives a prize more than once, each award relationship contributes to the laureate total, while the person remains one individual. This is why the Foundation’s 1,026 laureates through 2025 resolve to 990 individuals plus 28 organisations, rather than 1,026 unique people.
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Organisations can be laureates
Some laureates are organisations rather than individuals. A total labelled only “people” would misstate a figure that includes both recipient types.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Make comparisons with the unit stated
Before comparing years, categories, or recipient groups, identify whether the figures count award instances, laureate-award records, unique individuals, or organisations. Those units answer different questions, and a comparison can be misleading if one side counts awards while the other counts people.
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The cumulative prize totals include the six prize categories, including the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel. Use the complete name on first reference, and do not treat the Economics Prize’s recipient total as a count of unique people across all categories.
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The totals above establish cumulative counts, not demographic trends or distributions. Such claims require a defined data extract and analysis suited to the question.
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