United Kingdom's Top 2% Scientists 2025

The United Kingdom has 18,125 scientists on the 2025 single-year Top 2% list, up 3.3% from 17,554 in 2024. That places the United Kingdom 3rd in the world by number of listed scientists. University of Oxford has the most listed scientists (751), followed by University College London (715).

Single Year

18,125

+571 (+3.3%) vs 2024

Career Data

20,571

+925 (+4.7%) vs 2024

World rank by count

No change vs 2024

Institutes

1,639

+383 (+30.5%) vs 2024

Scientists in the United Kingdom on the list, by year

The single-year count has grown 31% since 2020.

Single-year list, change on the previous year

2021+14.8%

2022+3.8%

2023+2.1%

2024+4.5%

2025+3.3%

Show the numbers

Year	Single Year	Change	Career Data	Change
2020	13,805		14,999
2021	15,844	+14.8%	17,237	+14.9%
2022	16,445	+3.8%	17,986	+4.3%
2023	16,795	+2.1%	18,692	+3.9%
2024	17,554	+4.5%	19,646	+5.1%
2025	18,125	+3.3%	20,571	+4.7%

Top 10 institutes in the United Kingdom

By number of listed scientists

Single-year list2025

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All 18,125 scientists

Single-year list2025

The first 100 are free to browse.

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Rank in the United Kingdom	World rank	Scientist	Institute	Sub-field	Rank in sub-field
1	10	AD Altman, Douglas G.	University of Oxford Medical Sciences Division	General & Internal Medicine	Rank 1
2	20	HJ Higgins, Julian P.T.	Bristol Medical School	General & Internal Medicine	Rank 3
3	22	FK Friston, Karl	UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology	Neurology & Neurosurgery	Rank 1
4	39	PM Pesaran, M. Hashem	Trinity College Cambridge	Econometrics	Rank 1
5	46	RP Ridker, Paul M.	Imperial College London	Cardiovascular System & Hematology	Rank 3
6	47	GA Geim, Andre K.	The University of Manchester	Applied Physics	Rank 4
7	76	SS Smith, Stephen	University of Oxford Medical Sciences Division	Neurology & Neurosurgery	Rank 4
8	92	GF Geels, Frank W.	Alliance Manchester Business School	Science Studies	Rank 1
9	114	Yang, Xin She	Middlesex University	Artificial Intelligence & Image Processing	Rank 11
10	116	CP Calder, Philip C.	University of Southampton	Nutrition & Dietetics	Rank 1
11	117	GM Griffiths, Mark D.	Nottingham Trent University	Substance Abuse	Rank 1
12	134	BP Barnes, Peter John	National Heart and Lung Institute	Respiratory System	Rank 1
13	144	MM Marmot, Michael	University College London	Epidemiology	Rank 4
14	154	BS Baron-Cohen, Simon B.	Autism Research Centre	Developmental & Child Psychology	Rank 1
15	156	HS Horvath, Steve M.	Altos Labs	Developmental Biology	Rank 6
16	161	SP Smith, Pete	University of Aberdeen	Agronomy & Agriculture	Rank 3
17	168	SH Snaith, Henry James	University of Oxford	Nanoscience & Nanotechnology	Rank 7
18	169	HS Hawking, Stephen W.	University of Cambridge	Nuclear & Particle Physics	Rank 2
19	179	BS Burgess, Stephen	MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit	Epidemiology	Rank 5
20	189	WS Wood, Simon N.	The University of Edinburgh	Statistics & Probability	Rank 7
21	209	Buhalis, Dimitrios	Bournemouth University	Sport, Leisure & Tourism	Rank 3
22	217	GK Gaston, Kevin J.	University of Exeter	Ecology	Rank 6
23	222	BA Baddeley, Alan D.	University of York	Experimental Psychology	Rank 5
24	226	AC A. C. Ferrari, A. Carlo	Department of Engineering	Applied Physics	Rank 8
25	237	TR Thompson, Richard C.	University of Plymouth	Marine Biology & Hydrobiology	Rank 2
26	238	LG Lip, Gregory Y.H.	University of Liverpool	Cardiovascular System & Hematology	Rank 9
27	241	MJ McMurray, John JV	University of Glasgow	Cardiovascular System & Hematology	Rank 10
28	243	EM Egger, Matthias	Bristol Medical School	General & Internal Medicine	Rank 8
29	244	YZ Yang, Ziheng	University College London	Evolutionary Biology	Rank 1
30	274	HK Hyland, Ken	University of East Anglia	Languages & Linguistics	Rank 1
31	300	DS Davey Smith, George	University of Bristol	Nuclear & Particle Physics	Rank 5
32	305	LQ Le, Quocviet	DeepMind Technologies Limited	Artificial Intelligence & Image Processing	Rank 22
33	307	SA Steptoe, Andrew	University College London	Psychiatry	Rank 8
34	335	PS Pocock, Stuart J.	London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine	Cardiovascular System & Hematology	Rank 16
35	342	SD Silver, David	DeepMind Technologies Limited	Artificial Intelligence & Image Processing	Rank 25
36	343	MM Murphy, Michael P.	MRC Mitochondrial Biology Unit	Biochemistry & Molecular Biology	Rank 7
37	361	CR Costanza, Robert	University College London	Ecology	Rank 7
38	364	JY Jin, Yaochu	University of Surrey	Artificial Intelligence & Image Processing	Rank 27
39	366	GT Greenhalgh, Trisha	University of Oxford Medical Sciences Division	General & Internal Medicine	Rank 10
40	375	AM Ashby, Michael F.A.	Dep of Engineering	Materials	Rank 7
41	378	BS Ball, Stephen John	UCL Institute of Education	Education	Rank 5
42	391	Choi, Tsan Ming	University of Liverpool Management School	Operations Research	Rank 3
43	395	MS Michie, Susan F.	University College London	Public Health	Rank 4
44	398	SN Sattar, Naveed A.	University of Glasgow	Cardiovascular System & Hematology	Rank 18
45	412	DJ Dewaele, Jean Marc	Birkbeck, University of London	Languages & Linguistics	Rank 2
46	419	RE Rolls, Edmund T.	University of Warwick	Neurology & Neurosurgery	Rank 24
47	435	SC Spence, C. J.	University of Oxford Medical Sciences Division	Experimental Psychology	Rank 8
48	436	HJ Hardy, John Anthony	UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology	Neurology & Neurosurgery	Rank 25
49	441	DS Davey Smith, George	University of Bristol	Epidemiology	Rank 7
50	456	VD Van Der Linden, Sander L.	University of Cambridge	Social Psychology	Rank 24
51	460	FC Frith, Chris D.	Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging	Neurology & Neurosurgery	Rank 27
52	468	SJ Sterne, Jonathan A.C.	University of Bristol	General & Internal Medicine	Rank 14
53	498	AW Adger, W. Neil	University of Exeter	Environmental Sciences	Rank 8
54	512	GD Gabrilovich, Dmitry I.	AstraZeneca	Immunology	Rank 15
55	517	BS Blakemore, Sarah Jayne	University of Cambridge	Experimental Psychology	Rank 9
56	531	PJ Pearce, Juliana A.	Cardiff University	Geochemistry & Geophysics	Rank 1
57	539	WI White, Ian R.	University College London	Statistics & Probability	Rank 12
58	557	DZ Dörnyei, Zoltán	University of Nottingham	Languages & Linguistics	Rank 3
59	573	RS Rutter, Sir Michael	King's College London	Developmental & Child Psychology	Rank 7
60	576	IT Ingold, Tim	University of Aberdeen	Anthropology	Rank 1
61	580	LD Lawlor, Debbie A.	University of Bristol	Epidemiology	Rank 8
62	584	CV Clarke, Victoria	University of the West of England	Gender Studies	Rank 2
63	585	SS Scheres, Sjors H.W.	The Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology	Developmental Biology	Rank 19
64	597	GR Goodman, Robert M.	King's College London	Developmental & Child Psychology	Rank 9
65	639	DZ DIng, Zhiguo Ding	The University of Manchester	Networking & Telecommunications	Rank 6
66	643	HD Hardie, David Grahame	University of Dundee	Biochemistry & Molecular Biology	Rank 9
67	665	GA Gasparrini, Antonio G.	London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine	Toxicology	Rank 2
68	673	FP Fonagy, Peter	University College London	Psychiatry	Rank 20
69	682	GP Gilbert, Paul	University of Derby	Clinical Psychology	Rank 5
70	683	DJ Deeks, Jonathan J.	University of Birmingham	General & Internal Medicine	Rank 19
71	684	JD Jones, Davey Leonard	Bangor University	Agronomy & Agriculture	Rank 5
72	685	Rodríguez-Pose, Andrés	London School of Economics and Political Science	Urban & Regional Planning	Rank 1
73	686	FC FOYER, Christine H.	University of Birmingham	Plant Biology & Botany	Rank 5
74	694	DD Denning, David W.	The University of Manchester	Microbiology	Rank 7
75	695	TS Thompson, Simon G.	Swansea University Medical School	General & Internal Medicine	Rank 20
76	708	CR Collins, Rory	Clinical Trial Service Unit and Epidemiological Studies Unit	General & Internal Medicine	Rank 21
77	720	BJ Barron, Jonathan T.	DeepMind Technologies Limited	Artificial Intelligence & Image Processing	Rank 50
78	721	HR Hill, Rodney J.	Gonville and Caius College	Mechanical Engineering & Transports	Rank 8
79	725	DI Deary, Ian J.	The University of Edinburgh	Neurology & Neurosurgery	Rank 44
80	747	PJ Pendry, John Brian	Imperial College London	Applied Physics	Rank 20
81	751	RP Rothwell, Peter M.	University of Oxford Medical Sciences Division	Neurology & Neurosurgery	Rank 46
82	778	DR Dunbar, Robin I.M.	University of Oxford Medical Sciences Division	Behavioral Science & Comparative Psychology	Rank 1
83	780	LT Lenton, Timothy M.	University of Exeter	Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences	Rank 8
84	794	Wei, Li	UCL Institute of Education	Languages & Linguistics	Rank 6
85	796	MR May, Robert M.	University of Oxford	Evolutionary Biology	Rank 5
86	814	BB Blocken, Bert J.E.	Heriot-Watt University	Building & Construction	Rank 10
87	815	BA Bateman, Alex G.	EMBL’s European Bioinformatics Institute	Developmental Biology	Rank 24
88	824	SM Singer, Mervyn	UCL Wolfson Institute for Biomedical Research	Emergency & Critical Care Medicine	Rank 4
89	833	WM Woodward, Mark A.	Imperial College London	Cardiovascular System & Hematology	Rank 25
90	873	BL Barsalou, Lawrence W.	University of Glasgow	Experimental Psychology	Rank 20
91	889	AJ Ashburner, John T.	University College London	Neurology & Neurosurgery	Rank 53
92	904	WA Walsh, Aron	Imperial College London	Nanoscience & Nanotechnology	Rank 32
93	917	SW Schultz, Wolfram	University of Cambridge	Neurology & Neurosurgery	Rank 55
94	922	TV Thakur, Vijay Kumar	Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC)	Polymers	Rank 7
95	931	BM Batty, Michael J.	University College London	Urban & Regional Planning	Rank 2
96	937	MM McKee, Martin J.	London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine	Public Health	Rank 8
97	941	BR Bardgett, Richard D.	The University of Manchester	Ecology	Rank 22
98	945	LG Laporte, Gilbert	University of Bath, School of Management	Operations Research	Rank 6
99	953	RT Robbins, Trevor W.	Fulbourn Hospital	Neurology & Neurosurgery	Rank 57
100	954	PR Penrose, Roger	University of Oxford	Nuclear & Particle Physics	Rank 10
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Countries with a similar count

Single-year list2025

United States73,020 scientists

China31,697 scientists

Germany10,666 scientists

Australia8,555 scientists

Canada8,303 scientists

Italy7,991 scientists

Explore other countries

Single-year list2025

Sweden2,666 scientists

Denmark2,061 scientists

Norway1,333 scientists

Finland1,208 scientists

Ireland925 scientists

Estonia108 scientists

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Frequently asked questions

How many scientists from the United Kingdom are in the 2025 Stanford Top 2% list?

18,125 scientists affiliated with the United Kingdom are on the 2025 single-year list, and 20,571 are on the career-long list.

Which institute in the United Kingdom has the most Top 2% scientists?

On the 2025 single-year list, University of Oxford has the most listed scientists from the United Kingdom, with 751. It is followed by University College London with 715.

How has the number of Top 2% scientists in the United Kingdom changed since 2020?

On the single-year list, the United Kingdom went from 13,805 scientists in 2020 to 18,125 in 2025, a change of +31.3%.

What is the difference between the single-year and career-long lists?

The single-year list ranks scientists on the citations their work received in one year. The career-long list ranks them on citations across their whole career. Both lists are published every year, and a scientist can be on one, both or neither.

What is the official source of this data?

The rankings come from the science-wide author databases of standardized citation indicators published by Ioannidis et al. in the Elsevier Data Repository, updated every year. TOPSCINET, an independent platform, organises that data by country, year, institute and field, so you can compare and explore it.