Every four years I'm made aware that a raw Olympic medal count allows large countries (which, with their large populations, should be able to produce a greater number of talented athletes) to look good by winning more medals. In a quiet effort to set things on a better footing (and to promote the achievements of my country's superb athletes) here's the 2012 London Olympics medal count on a per capita basis. The numbers are calculated on the basis of medals-per-ten-million-head-of-population.
Update: here's the Paralympics table.
A few questions are answered on the FAQ page.
Rank | Country | Population | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Gold/ 10 million | Silver/ 10 million | Bronze/ 10 million |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Grenada ![]() | 105,000 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 95.2381 | 0.0000 | 0.0000 |
2 | Bahamas ![]() | 353,658 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 28.2759 | 0.0000 | 0.0000 |
3 | Jamaica ![]() | 2,705,827 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 14.7829 | 14.7829 | 14.7829 |
4 | New Zealand ![]() | 4,434,090 | 6 | 2 | 5 | 13.5315 | 4.5105 | 11.2763 |
5 | Hungary ![]() | 9,962,000 | 8 | 4 | 5 | 8.0305 | 4.0153 | 5.0191 |
6 | Trinidad and Tobago ![]() | 1,317,714 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 7.5889 | 0.0000 | 22.7667 |
7 | Croatia ![]() | 4,290,612 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 6.9920 | 2.3307 | 4.6613 |
8 | Lithuania ![]() | 3,187,700 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 6.2741 | 3.1371 | 6.2741 |
9 | Slovenia ![]() | 2,057,800 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4.8596 | 4.8596 | 9.7191 |
10 | Latvia ![]() | 2,070,371 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 4.8301 | 0.0000 | 4.8301 |
11 | Great Britain ![]() | 62,262,000 | 29 | 17 | 19 | 4.6577 | 2.7304 | 3.0516 |
12 | Cuba ![]() | 11,247,925 | 5 | 3 | 6 | 4.4453 | 2.6672 | 5.3343 |
13 | Kazakhstan ![]() | 16,734,000 | 7 | 1 | 5 | 4.1831 | 0.5976 | 2.9879 |
14 | Norway ![]() | 5,025,800 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 3.9795 | 1.9897 | 1.9897 |
15 | Czech Republic ![]() | 10,504,203 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3.8080 | 2.8560 | 2.8560 |
16 | Netherlands ![]() | 16,736,075 | 6 | 6 | 8 | 3.5851 | 3.5851 | 4.7801 |
17 | Denmark ![]() | 5,584,758 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 3.5812 | 7.1624 | 5.3718 |
18 | Belarus ![]() | 9,458,500 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 3.1718 | 5.2863 | 5.2863 |
19 | Australia ![]() | 22,683,140 | 7 | 16 | 12 | 3.0860 | 7.0537 | 5.2903 |
20 | South Korea ![]() | 48,580,000 | 13 | 8 | 7 | 2.6760 | 1.6468 | 1.4409 |
21 | Switzerland ![]() | 7,952,600 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 2.5149 | 2.5149 | 0.0000 |
22 | Georgia ![]() | 4,497,600 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 2.2234 | 6.6702 | 6.6702 |
23 | Ireland ![]() | 4,588,252 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 2.1795 | 2.1795 | 6.5384 |
24 | Azerbaijan ![]() | 9,235,100 | 2 | 2 | 6 | 2.1657 | 2.1657 | 6.4970 |
25 | France ![]() | 65,350,000 | 11 | 11 | 12 | 1.6832 | 1.6832 | 1.8363 |
26 | Russia ![]() | 143,117,000 | 24 | 26 | 32 | 1.6769 | 1.8167 | 2.2359 |
27 | North Korea ![]() | 24,554,000 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 1.6291 | 0.0000 | 0.8145 |
28 | USA ![]() | 313,998,000 | 46 | 29 | 29 | 1.4650 | 0.9236 | 0.9236 |
29 | Serbia ![]() | 7,120,666 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1.4044 | 1.4044 | 2.8087 |
30 | Germany ![]() | 81,859,000 | 11 | 19 | 14 | 1.3438 | 2.3211 | 1.7103 |
31 | Ukraine ![]() | 45,589,171 | 6 | 5 | 9 | 1.3161 | 1.0968 | 1.9742 |
32 | Italy ![]() | 60,813,326 | 8 | 9 | 11 | 1.3155 | 1.4799 | 1.8088 |
33 | Dominican Republic ![]() | 9,445,281 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1.0587 | 1.0587 | 0.0000 |
34 | Sweden ![]() | 9,495,113 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 1.0532 | 4.2127 | 3.1595 |
35 | Romania ![]() | 19,042,936 | 2 | 5 | 2 | 1.0503 | 2.6256 | 1.0503 |
36 | Tunisia ![]() | 10,673,800 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0.9369 | 0.9369 | 0.9369 |
37 | Spain ![]() | 46,185,697 | 3 | 10 | 4 | 0.6496 | 2.1652 | 0.8661 |
38 | South Africa ![]() | 50,586,757 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0.5930 | 0.3954 | 0.1977 |
39 | Japan ![]() | 127,530,000 | 7 | 14 | 17 | 0.5489 | 1.0978 | 1.3330 |
40 | Iran ![]() | 75,149,669 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 0.5323 | 0.6653 | 0.3992 |
41 | Poland ![]() | 38,501,000 | 2 | 2 | 6 | 0.5195 | 0.5195 | 1.5584 |
42 | Kenya ![]() | 42,749,000 | 2 | 4 | 5 | 0.4678 | 0.9357 | 1.1696 |
43 | Venezuela ![]() | 27,150,095 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0.3683 | 0.0000 | 0.0000 |
44 | Ethiopia ![]() | 84,320,987 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 0.3558 | 0.1186 | 0.3558 |
45 | Uzbekistan ![]() | 29,123,400 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0.3434 | 0.0000 | 1.0301 |
46 | Uganda ![]() | 32,939,800 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0.3036 | 0.0000 | 0.0000 |
47 | Canada ![]() | 34,870,600 | 1 | 5 | 12 | 0.2868 | 1.4339 | 3.4413 |
48 | China ![]() | 1,347,350,000 | 38 | 27 | 23 | 0.2820 | 0.2004 | 0.1707 |
49 | Algeria ![]() | 37,100,000 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0.2695 | 0.0000 | 0.0000 |
50 | Turkey ![]() | 74,724,269 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0.2677 | 0.2677 | 0.1338 |
51 | Argentina ![]() | 40,117,096 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0.2493 | 0.2493 | 0.4985 |
52 | Colombia ![]() | 46,624,000 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 0.2145 | 0.6434 | 0.8579 |
53 | Brazil ![]() | 192,376,496 | 3 | 5 | 9 | 0.1559 | 0.2599 | 0.4678 |
54 | Mexico ![]() | 112,336,538 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 0.0890 | 0.2671 | 0.2671 |
55 | Montenegro ![]() | 620,029 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0.0000 | 16.1283 | 0.0000 |
56 | Cyprus ![]() | 838,897 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0.0000 | 11.9204 | 0.0000 |
57 | Estonia ![]() | 1,294,236 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0.0000 | 7.7266 | 7.7266 |
58 | Mongolia ![]() | 2,844,000 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 0.0000 | 7.0323 | 10.5485 |
59 | Gabon ![]() | 1,564,000 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0.0000 | 6.3939 | 0.0000 |
60 | Botswana ![]() | 2,038,228 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0.0000 | 4.9062 | 0.0000 |
61 | Armenia ![]() | 3,268,500 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0.0000 | 3.0595 | 6.1190 |
62 | Puerto Rico ![]() | 3,725,789 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0.0000 | 2.6840 | 2.6840 |
63 | Finland ![]() | 5,413,890 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0.0000 | 1.8471 | 3.6942 |
64 | Slovakia ![]() | 5,445,324 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0.0000 | 1.8364 | 5.5093 |
65 | Bulgaria ![]() | 7,364,570 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0.0000 | 1.3579 | 1.3579 |
66 | Portugal ![]() | 10,561,614 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0.0000 | 0.9468 | 0.0000 |
67 | Belgium ![]() | 10,951,266 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0.0000 | 0.9131 | 1.8263 |
68 | Guatemala ![]() | 14,713,763 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0.0000 | 0.6796 | 0.0000 |
69 | Taiwan ![]() | 23,261,747 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0.0000 | 0.4299 | 0.4299 |
70 | Malaysia ![]() | 28,334,135 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0.0000 | 0.3529 | 0.3529 |
71 | Thailand ![]() | 65,479,453 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0.0000 | 0.3054 | 0.1527 |
72 | Egypt ![]() | 82,423,000 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0.0000 | 0.2427 | 0.0000 |
73 | Indonesia ![]() | 237,641,326 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0.0000 | 0.0421 | 0.0421 |
74 | India ![]() | 1,210,193,422 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 0.0000 | 0.0165 | 0.0331 |
75 | Qatar ![]() | 1,699,435 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0.0000 | 0.0000 | 11.7686 |
76 | Bahrain ![]() | 1,234,571 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0.0000 | 0.0000 | 8.1000 |
77 | Moldova ![]() | 3,559,500 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0.0000 | 0.0000 | 5.6188 |
78 | Singapore ![]() | 5,183,700 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0.0000 | 0.0000 | 3.8582 |
79 | Kuwait ![]() | 3,582,054 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0.0000 | 0.0000 | 2.7917 |
80 | Greece ![]() | 10,787,690 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0.0000 | 0.0000 | 1.8540 |
81 | Hong Kong ![]() | 7,103,700 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0.0000 | 0.0000 | 1.4077 |
82 | Tajikistan ![]() | 7,800,000 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0.0000 | 0.0000 | 1.2821 |
83 | Afghanistan ![]() | 25,500,100 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0.0000 | 0.0000 | 0.3922 |
84 | Saudi Arabia ![]() | 27,136,977 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0.0000 | 0.0000 | 0.3685 |
85 | Morocco ![]() | 32,634,100 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0.0000 | 0.0000 | 0.3064 |
These data were last updated Tue Aug 14 20:45 NZST 2012 using medal data from the official site and Google, and population figures from Wikipedia. These updated data include Valerie's promotion from Silver to Gold in the shot put (she was awesome when she won silver, and it's great that she's won the gold!). If you have any questions or comments, please get in touch.
Update: here's the Paralympics table.
A few questions are answered on the FAQ page.
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