First Born Females Found Most Likely To Succeed

If you aspire to Oprah or Beyoncé levels of success — and are both female and the oldest kid in the family — you may have more of an advantage than you realize, according to new research out of the U.K. The study, by PhD student Feifei Bu at the Institute for Social and Economic Research at the University of Essex, has found that a firstborn female is likely to be the most ambitious and successful sibling in a family. But don't worry, guys — firstborn boys come in at a close second.


























"There are several possible explanations for the higher attainment and ambition of the eldest," Bu, who is herself an eldest sibling, tells the Guardian. "It could be that the parents simply devote more time and energy to them, it could be they are actually more intelligent. For me, I tend to lean towards the theory that parental investment is possibly at work here.” Yahoo Shine could not reach Bu for additional comment.

Her paper, “Sibling Configurations, Educational Aspiration and Attainment,” published in March, used data on 1,503 sibling groups and 3,532 individuals from the British Household Panel Study, which was carried out by the University of Essex for the purpose of economic and social research. It found that firstborn children were 7 percent more likely than younger siblings to pursue higher education — and that firstborn girls were 13 percent more ambitious than their male counterparts.

“Despite the volume of literature in this area, the debate over birth order effects remains unresolved,” Bu writes in the study, “due partly to criticisms about the types of data and the analytic methodologies employed.” Previous studies, particularly those in Norway, Denmark, and the Netherlands, found that firstborn children are more likely to succeed, she notes. Bu’s research went further to suggest that the advantage could be partly explained by the finding that firstborn children are likely more ambitious than younger siblings.

Similar studies have mainly focused on differences between families, Bu notes, while her research — which excludes families with just one child or with only twins — looks at intra-family comparisons between siblings; it also looks at the role of birth order in an individual’s educational aspirations, starting at adolescence. 

PS: Need more than study stats for inspiration? Some more concrete examples of high-achieving firstborn females include Hillary Clinton, Sheryl Sandberg, and J.K. Rowling. But, of course, middle children — like Madonna and Julia Roberts — have also been shown to be most successful. So be inspired (or dejected) by this latest finding at your own risk.