Professor Luke O'Neill

You can have the youngest sometimes being like the eldest in certain families.

So you're looking for an average response here.

And what's really interesting is there are these trends emerge when you look at all these big numbers.

And in science, the bigger the numbers, the better.

So the more people you look at,

the more likely it is your bottom line will be true in terms of the average.

And it had been known for a while, a big one, first of all, to do with performance and education.

And you can look at that.

You can look at A-level scores, for instance.

And the eldest is inclined to do better at A-levels.

That was a UK study.

Another UK study looked at IQ measurements and again the eldest was inclined to have a higher IQ score than a younger sibling and that seems to stand up statistically.

So for some reason the older one seems to do better in education and then has a slightly higher IQ.

the middle one and the younger one less, right?

And that was interesting anyway.

And in fact, that was the very question that these scientists wondered about.

Why would that be?

And they were scientists in Denmark and they examined this closely and they noticed that because of this sort of educational advantage is part of it, the eldest child or the older child is inclined to earn more money in their life than the next child.

And it's 1.9%.

Now, what that means is over your lifetime, if you're the older sibling, you will earn 1.9% more than the next child, the second child in the order.