OSLO (Reuters) - First born children in Norway get better education and as adults are more successful in the job market than younger siblings, a Norwegian-U.S. study shows.

"It is the birth order and not necessarily the size of the family that is important," said economics professor Kjell Salvanes of the Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration. "It is better if you are the first born."

Salvanes and two colleagues from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) based their study on census data of Norwegians born between 1912 and 1975.

The findings will be published in the Quarterly Journal of Economics, a Harvard publication, in May.

They found that younger siblings tend to get less schooling than their elders and then end up with lower pay on average and were more likely to be in part-time work, Salvanes said. The findings were likely to hold true in other countries, he said.

"In terms of educational attainment, if you are the fourth born instead of the first, you get almost one year less education, and that is quite a lot," Salvanes told Reuters.

And first-born children tend to weigh more at birth than their younger brothers and sisters, which is a good predictor for educational success, Salvanes said.

Children alone with two adults also tend to get more intellectual stimulation than children in large families who get less parental attention, he said.

First-born children seem to learn from teaching their younger siblings, contrary to the common notion that younger children benefit by learning from their elders, Salvanes said.

So does that mean big sisters really are smarter?

"Yes. It's hard to admit because I have older sisters," Salvanes said.
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I'm the oldest kid in my family and I can't wait to email this story to my sister.
(of course I don't live in Norway but I'm sure it applies in the U.S. to)

That is cool... kinda un fair for the younger kids... but well yeah..
LOL... yeah i am also an older sibling... me and 2 of my freinds are all oldest in the family... we were thinking by looking at other siblings we knew we knowtice that
the Oldest is the smartest
2nd oldest was quite slow
the third was smarther then the second but not as smart as the first
and the fourth again quite slow

so we thought that like the first kid the best genetic material from the parents went into making them smartest..
then the second was slow cuzz the good dna was used up..
then the third got smarter because the dna like was restocked causing a smarter child but not as smart as the 1st who got the first pick of dna..
then the 4th just had left overs from the one before which there was already less then in the beging... so they are the dumbest out of all..

yeah thats all randomly made up but hey it kinda makes sence.. but not..LOL.... yeah it was a group of oldest siblings kinda trying to figure out why our younger siblings were sooooo much...well slower then us..

No offence to younger siblings... Just the blatherings of a teenage older sibling who may not know everything...LOL... do duh i dont know everything...LOL

Ha..thats not true in my case. My older brother drinks and smokes most of the day and I read and study most of the day (as well as coming on UM..but i consider this educational).

PS: This is post 666...Ohh creepy.

I always knew that! I am the smartest, (I'm not joking, I really am) and I am the oldest.

Wh00t! Let's hear it for being born 1 minute before Werewolf of Doom. We're supposed to be twins, but we're not really. And I know -lots- more than she does.

I don't know about this.
My sister is 2, 19 years younger than I, and she's can do circles around me in the brain activity department.

When I was my sisters age, I got an A in my Transfer test and was on my way to the Grammar School I am at now. She got a C2! (in other words, she sucks)

first thing I thought of when I read the topic : Smarter by what means of judgement ?

The school system is not a valid representation of how smart a person is . I got mostly A's in school ( some B's in english due to my infinite disgust with some of their choices for in class required reading novels ) and I do not consider this as something that proves my superior intellect at all . A school system can be only that - a school system . It is designed to meet a certain criteria and thus kids who's minds think in a way that matches the criteria best always excel above the others . I think a lot of valet victorians ( another word for straight A students ) would be embarressed to find out just how down the drain their academic advantage would go if the system was completely re-constructed to fit a differant learning style . To be honest , the way the current system is wired good grades are just a manner of how willing you are to pretend that you give two shits .

Also it is known that the more help a student gets in their first years as a child the better they do in school . One doesnt have to be a genius to figure out why this explains why the first born do better - on average they do gain more attention during their early years since the parents attention isnt divided between siblings .

Similarily , since getting a high paying Job is linked to your grades , using that as a measurement of intellect is just as fallacious .

Tough luck Sera

hahah

He he he, cant wait to use this over my younger sister!