South Africans double international enterprise entries

Entries for the 2012 Rolex Awards for Enterprise have increased to 3512 applications, which represents the highest number of projects submitted since the international philanthropy programme was established in 1976. These awards honour and support pioneering individuals whose projects benefit their communities and the wider world.

There were 53 entries from South Africa, a figure more than double that of the last three comparable series of the awards (2004, 2006 and 2008), 103 from Nigeria and 102 from Kenya.

"We are thrilled that so many people are putting forward projects to benefit our planet," said Rebecca Irvin, head of the Rolex Institute. She attributes the rise in applications to greater awareness worldwide of issues such as renewable energy and the need to protect biodiversity and to a growing recognition of the power of the individual to change the world.

"The application process has been simplified and this probably encouraged more people to apply. We are very pleased to see the increase in interest in the awards in South Africa, which has longstanding links with the programme and has produced outstanding Laureates."

Analysis of the entries of the current edition and the previous edition in 2008 (the last comparable Awards series) shows:

drop in the average age of applicants from 46 years of age in 2008 to 41
percentage of women applying rose to 28% up from 23% in 2008 and is the highest percentage recorded - the proportion of female applicants has almost doubled between the 1998 Awards (15%) and the 2012 Awards (28%), in 1976, the proportion was 5%
more than 20% rise in the number of countries in which people submitted applications (126 to 154) - of these, a striking number are developing countries
The youngest applicant is eight years old; the oldest is 95
Applicants under 30 represent 25%, in 2008: 11%
Age group with most entries is 31-40 year olds, 29%
Ten countries with the most entries: US (425), India (209), UK (141), Colombia (118), China (110), Mexico (107), Nigeria (103), Argentina (102), Kenya (102) and Italy (101)
BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China), as a group, have more than tripled their total entries, from 153 in 2008 to 479 in 2012; Russia, for example, has 75 entries in this series, over nine times more than in 2008.

For more information, go to www.rolexawards.com.