(Reuters): The Nobel Foundation, which oversees the awards, announced on Friday that the recipients of this year’s prizes will get an additional million Swedish crowns, bringing their total monetary award to 11 million crowns ($986,000).
The prize money has fluctuated in recent years, and this year’s award-givers claimed they were boosting it to reflect the foundation’s better financial situation.
As the foundation attempted to stabilize its finances, the prize money was decreased from 10 million crowns to 8 million in 2012. In 2017, the prize sum was raised to $9 million, and in 2020 it will rise to $10 million, returning it to what it was in 2012.
However, the Swedish crown has lost almost 30% of its value versus the euro over the past ten years, so the most recent boost in the prize’s worth won’t make victors outside of Sweden feel all that wealthy.
Despite the Swedish currency being devalued to 8 million crowns in 2013, the prizes for achievements in science, literature, and peace, which were originally given out in 1901, were still worth about 1.2 million dollars.
The first of this year’s awards, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, will be announced on October 2. Physics, Chemistry, Literature, and Peace will be announced the next several days.
$1 is equal to 11.1570 Swedish crowns.
