The oldest child is the smartest in the family, according to science

Eldest siblings, rejoice! We’ve got good news for you. A new study has found that the eldest child is the most intelligent.

The study found that there was “a strong negative relation between birth order and cognitive outcomes of children.”

This news will certainly boost the older siblings ego, but it is bound to cause major sibling rivalry in households across the country.

The study was conducted by teams of researchers at the Universities of Houston, New South Wales and Sheffield.

The teams discovered that older siblings feel more confident when it comes to their academic performances, whilst younger brothers and sisters can often doubt themselves.

This may be because the eldest sibling doesn’t have anyone to compare themselves to. However, as younger siblings know, you’re often compared to your big sister or brother.

There is a huge pressure on youngsters to perform better especially if their big brother is a math whiz, or if their older sister is a history buff.

The team explained that younger siblings may be ‘less intelligent’ because they don’t get as much attention from their parents, compared to their older siblings.

They said parental attention has a massive impact on children’s academic performance. For example, the youngest daughter may not feel as supported as her older brother did when he was in school because the parents have more children to focus on.

“Although later-born children are not born disadvantaged in their health or developmentally, we find that parents are unable to provide them with the same level of cognitive support as they do with their first-born,” they explained.