OSLO, Norway — The Norwegian Nobel Institute made a key announcement Thursday, confirming that a total of 287 candidates have been put forward for the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize. Of these nominees, 208 are individual activists, leaders, and advocates, while 79 are formal organizations working across the globe to advance peace. Per longstanding institutional rules, the full list of nominees remains unpublished, with names sealed for 50 years to protect candidates and preserve the integrity of the selection process.
While this year’s total nomination count falls short of the all-time record of 376 set in 2016, institute officials framed the figure as consistently high, a reflection of the widespread global movement to recognize peacebuilding work. “In an increasingly conflictual world, there is no lack of candidates whose principled commitment and innovative action points towards a brighter future,” the institute shared in its official statement announcing the final nomination count.
Under Nobel Foundation statutes, nominator eligibility is restricted to specific groups: sitting national lawmakers and cabinet ministers, former Nobel Peace Prize laureates, sitting members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, university professors of social sciences and history, and leaders of independent peace research institutes. While nominee identities are formally confidential, eligible nominators are permitted to publicly disclose the candidates they have put forward, leading to a steady trickle of confirmed names ahead of the October 9 winner announcement.
Already, publicly disclosed nominees include Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Swedish youth climate activist Greta Thunberg, and the International Criminal Court, one of multiple global institutions that have been put forward for the honor. Multiple eligible nominators have also confirmed they have put forward former U.S. President Donald Trump, who mounted a high-profile campaign for the 2024 prize, claiming his administration had made unprecedented efforts to end eight ongoing global conflicts.
Trump was overlooked for the 2024 award, which went to Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, and he publicly expressed his frustration over the snub. In a surprising turn, Machado dedicated her award to Trump and formally presented him with her physical prize medal in January 2025. The Norwegian Nobel Peace Prize committee later clarified that the physical medal is a symbolic artifact, and the honor of the prize itself remains tied exclusively to the official selected laureate.
Annual Nobel Peace Prize rules require all initial nominations to be submitted by the January 31 deadline. However, the institute confirmed that sitting committee members retain the right to add new candidates to the shortlist during their first post-deadline working meeting, which was held this year on February 26.