Recently, the Nobel Prizes for the year 2025 were announced. In this context, a post claiming that Indian-American statistician C. Radhakrishna Rao received the Nobel Prize in Statistics in 2025 at the age of 102 is going viral on social media platforms (here, here, here, and here). In this article, we fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: At the age of 102, Indian-American statistician C. Radhakrishna Rao was awarded the Nobel Prize in Statistics in 2025.
Fact: In 2023, at the age of 102, Indian-American mathematician and statistician Calyampudi Radhakrishna Rao (C. R. Rao) received the International Prize in Statistics, widely regarded as the equivalent of a Nobel Prize in the field of statistics. He passed away on 22 August 2023. C. R. Rao was also awarded the Padma Bhushan (1968) and the Padma Vibhushan (2001) by the Government of India. It should be noted that the Nobel Prize is not awarded in the field of statistics. Currently, Nobel Prizes are awarded in six categories: Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature, Peace, and Economic Sciences (the latter was added in 1968 by the Swedish Central Bank and was not included in Alfred Nobel’s will). Hence the claim made in the post is MISLEADING.
The 2025 Nobel Prize Winners announcements were made between 06 October and 13 October 2025 (here, here). In Physics, the prize was awarded to John Clarke, Michel H. Devoret, and John M. Martinis; in Chemistry, to Susumu Kitagawa, Richard Robson, and Omar M. Yaghi; and in Physiology or Medicine, to Mary E. Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell, and Shimon Sakaguchi. The Literature prize went to László Krasznahorkai, while the Peace prize was awarded to Maria Corina Machado. In Economic Sciences, the recipients were Joel Mokyr, Philippe Aghion, and Peter Howitt (here, here).
It should be noted that the Nobel Prize is not awarded in the field of statistics. Currently, Nobel Prizes are awarded in six categories: Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature, Peace, and Economic Sciences (the latter was formally added in 1968 by the Swedish Central Bank and was not included in Alfred Nobel’s will).
Indian-American mathematician and statistician Calyampudi Radhakrishna Rao (C. R. Rao) received the International Prize in Statistics in 2023, at the age of 102, which is widely regarded as the equivalent of a Nobel Prize in the field of statistics (here, here, here, and here).
Prof. C. R. Rao was born on 10 September 1920 in Huvanna Hadagali, now in Karnataka. He attended schools in Gudur, Nuzvid, Nandigama, and Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh and completed his M.A. in Mathematics at Andhra University, Waltair. He later earned an M.A. in Statistics from Calcutta University, Kolkata, West Bengal. C. R. Rao worked in India at the Indian Statistical Institute for 40 years before taking mandatory retirement at the age of 60. He then moved to the USA, where he worked for another 25 years at the University of Pittsburgh and Pennsylvania State University. He has also been awarded the Padma Bhushan (1968) and the Padma Vibhushan (2001) by the Government of India. In recognition of his contributions, the Government of India has instituted a biennial national award in statistics known as the Professor C. R. Rao Award. In his honour, Pennsylvania State University has established the C. R. and Bhargavi Rao Prize in Statistics. C. R. Rao passed away at the age of 102 on 22 August 2023 (here, here, here, and here).
To sum it up, at the age of 102, C. R. Rao received the International Prize in Statistics in 2023, which is regarded as the equivalent of the Nobel Prize in the field of statistics.
