Over the past week, the Nobel prizes have been awarded in chemistry, medicine, peace, physics and literature.

The awards are an annual ritual celebrating human intellectual endeavour that began in 1901. They were set up by Alfred Nobel, a Swedish inventor and arms manufacturer, who requested in his will that his fortune be used to create a series of prizes for those who confer the "greatest benefit on mankind".

Over the intervening 109 years, more than 500 prizes have been awarded. But which nation can claim the most winners?

We have trawled throught the archives to produce a definitive list of the nations with the biggest brains.

A clear winner would be the United States which comes out top overall, as well as in five of the six categories. The UK is next, with 117 Nobel medals. However, France, which bumps along in fourth or fifth, is clearly ahead when it comes to literature.

But there are a total of 69 countries or territories whose citizens have picked up the prize, from St Lucia to this week's latest addition, Peru, birthplace of author Mario Vargas Llosa.

Notes:

The figures include all Nobel Prizes awarded up to and including 8 October 2010

Prizes are allocated to the country/countries stated on the winner's biography on the website of the Nobel Prize committee (www.nobelprize.org)

Where the website mentions multiple countries in relation to a prize winner (country of birth; country of citizenship; country of residence at time of award) each of those countries is credited as having won the prize

Where a prize has multiple winners, the country (or countries) of each winner are credited

Prizes which were declined by the winner are included

Prizes won by organisations are not allocated to countries

The Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel is not a Nobel Prize per se, but it is awarded by the Royal Swedish
Academy of Sciences according to the same principles as for the Nobel Prizes. We therefore include it