The World according to the Swedish Academy

or the Nobel Prize in  Literature on the map.

The Swedish Academy literature map projection

Nobel Prize winners in Literature awarded

1901-2014 | 2000-2014

Europe 83 (~ 75%) | 10 (~ 66%)
North America 10 (~ 9%) | 1 (~ 6,6%)
Asia 6 (~ 5,5%) | 2 (~ 13%)
Central and South America 6 (~ 5,5%) | 1 (~ 6,6%)
Africa 4 (~  4%) | 1 (~ 6,6%)
Oceania 1 (~ 1%) | 0 (0%)

As we all can see, the Swedish Academy is still a pretty eurocentric reading company. Two third of the last fifteen prizes has been kept safely at home in Europe.

Sully Prudhomme from France was the first winner in 1901. Asia got it's first in 1913; Rabindranath Tagore, India. North America in 1930; Sinclair Lewis, U.S.A. Central and South America in 1945; Gabriela Mistral, Chile. Oceania in 1973; Patrick White, Australia. Africa in 1986; Woyle Soyinka, Nigeria.

The 27 times when an author from outside Europe has been awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature are: 1913, 1936, 1938, 1945, 1949, 1954, 1962, 1966-1968, 1971, 1973, 1976, 1978, 1982, 1986-1988, 1991-1994, 2003, 2006, 2010, 2012-2013.

This means that Europe has got the prize as follows:
1901-1910 - 10
1911-1920 - 7
1921-1930 - 10
1931-1940 - 6
1941-1950 - 5
1951-1960 - 9
1961-1970 - 7 *
1971-1980 - 6
1981-1990 - 5
1991-2000 - 6
2001-2010 - 7

These years no prize was awarded at all: 1914, 1918, 1935 and 1940-1943.

*) Nelly Sachs (Germany/Sweden) shared the Prize with Samuel Agnon from Israel in 1966.

P.S. Above I have put Czeslaw Milosz on the European map (Poland), as well as Gao Xingjian (France).