Oldest children tend to become the richest and most successful — and it could be thanks to their parents (2024)

FAQs

Is the oldest child more likely to be successful? ›

First-born kids tend to be leaders, like CEOS and founders, and are more likely to achieve traditional success. Middle-born children often embody a mix of the traits of older and younger siblings, and they're very relationship-focused.

Older kids, on average, have slightly higher IQs than their younger siblings, do better in school, and tend to earn more money as adults, as abundant research has shown.

Your success in life may be influenced by your birth order, according to the economist Sandra E. Black. Black points to research she and her colleagues have conducted that found that firstborns tend to be smarter, richer, and all-around more successful than their younger siblings.

First, oldest siblings are typically "natural-born leaders," McGeehan says. From a young age, they're expected to set a good example for younger brothers and sisters and might help their parents accomplish certain tasks. Generally speaking, that translates to being more reliable and responsible in adulthood.

Researchers from the University of Essex in the UK found first borns are 16% more likely to excel academically that their younger siblings [3]. This is especially true for girls: eldest daughters are an additional four percent more likely to go on to higher education that families with first born sons.

Firstborns tend to be reliable, conscientious, structured, cautious, controlling and achievers. Firstborns are diligent and want to be the best at everything they do. In contrast, if the couple has a second child, they might raise the second born with less stringency due to their experiences with the firstborn.

Many researchers have found that the oldest child in a family is likely to have higher intelligence and perform better in school than subsequent siblings, probably because they were the only child for a period of time and received all of their parents' attention during infancy and early childhood.

The research found that the youngest sibling in a family is way more likely to take risks in their developing careers, and thus end up far more successful and way more likely to be a millionaire. Researchers say this because the youngest kid has a natural tendency to rebel.

Furthermore, first-borns were found to have higher leadership averages with close-in-age younger siblings, while youngest siblings had higher leadership averages with no close-in-age older siblings.

Are most successful people first born? ›

It's not all bad news: our research found birth order doesn't seem to matter for entrepreneurs or founder chief executives – there doesn't seem to be any strong correlation there.

One possibility raised by the authors is that previous studies have found that firstborn children tend to be more professionally successful than their younger siblings. Statistically they attain higher educational levels, higher earnings and even higher IQs.

Firstborns, Adler believed, are responsible leaders but neurotic; middle children are competitive; and the youngest are doted on but struggle with independence. Many of these dynamics do play out among some families, but the results of decades of studies have confirmed these stereotypes are shaky at best.

“Eldest daughter syndrome is a term used to describe the unique challenges and expectations that are often placed upon the oldest child in a family,” says licensed clinical professional counselor Jamila Jones.

In a study done by MIT, economist Joseph Doyle surveyed thousands of families in Florida and Denmark and found that second-born children — particularly second-born sons — end up being the most troublesome. And they are not just the most difficult in their own family but in society as well.