A new study suggests that your birth order can determine your ability to make money in the future. Apparently, being the youngest in the family also has its perks as you are likely to be the millionaire entrepreneur in the brood.
The findings of a study carried out by researchers from the Universities of Birmingham and Reading revealed that last-born siblings have the “drive and desire to rebel against their parents” and are more likely to experiment with entrepreneurship.
In the study, 6,300 British with different number of siblings were surveyed. The researchers looked into the traits of 17,000 children born in 1970 and surveyed them again at age 38.
Based on the results, the youngest sibling coming from a non-entrepreneurial family with two siblings in it was 49% more likely to become “risk-taking business men and women”. On the other hand, the last-born in a non-entrepreneurial family with three siblings was 43% more likely to become his or her own boss.
“The most surprising finding in this study was if your parents had no entrepreneurial experience and you were a last-born, you were more likely to be self-employed than your older siblings. This suggests that last borns are more likely to be risk-takers,” said Professor Francis Greene of the University of Birmingham.
Interestingly, children from families whose parents were already entrepreneurial displayed different behavior. The last-borns were 18% less likely to follow their parents’ footsteps while the first and middle-born kids had the highest likelihood for going into business.
Study Says Older Siblings Are Smarter
After examining 20,000 people from the US, UK and Germany, researchers from the University of Leipzig have found that firstborn children are more intelligent on the average than their younger siblings.