Which is the smallest country to win a Nobel Prize?

Saint Lucia is the smallest country to have produced a Nobel Prize laureate.

The Caribbean island nation became associated with this distinction through poet and playwright Derek Walcott, who received the 1992 Nobel Prize in Literature. Walcott was born in Castries, Saint Lucia, in 1930 and drew extensively on Caribbean history, language and colonial experience.

Saint Lucia is a small eastern Caribbean state with a population of around 180,000. Its Nobel connection is cultural rather than scientific: Walcott’s award recognized literary work, including the long poem Omeros.

The distinction refers to the laureate’s country of origin, not to a Nobel ceremony held there. Saint Lucia has also produced internationally known writers and artists beyond Walcott.