Per-capita, Jamaica, Slovenia and Estonia are #1, 2 and 3 although given that a single medal puts them in or takes them out of the top ten, these positions are not in a sense statistically significant. Among overall medal leader, no country is close to Australia (#4) which has more than 6 times as many medals per capita as the US, and nearly 30 times as many medals per capita as China.
Moreover, these figures may understate smaller nation performance. Many US and Chinese medals come from "team" events, in which small countries are at an extreme disadvantage.
| Rank | Country | Gold medals | Silver medals | Bronze medals | 4-2-1 points | pop (mil) | Gold medals /mil | Tot medals /mil | 421 points /mil |
| 1 | Jamaica | 2 | 3 | 0 | 14 | 3 | .737 | 1.84 | 5.16 |
| 2 | Slovenia | 1 | 2 | 2 | 10 | 2 | .493 | 2.46 | 4.93 |
| 3 | Estonia | 1 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 1 | .746 | 1.49 | 4.48 |
| 4 | Australia | 11 | 12 | 12 | 80 | 21 | .514 | 1.64 | 3.74 |
| 5 | New Zealand | 2 | 1 | 3 | 13 | 4 | .468 | 1.40 | 3.04 |
| 6 | Slovakia | 3 | 1 | 0 | 14 | 5 | .555 | .74 | 2.59 |
| 7 | Denmark | 2 | 1 | 3 | 13 | 5 | .364 | 1.09 | 2.37 |
| 8 | Mongolia | 1 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 3 | .380 | .76 | 2.28 |
| 9 | Norway | 1 | 2 | 2 | 10 | 5 | .209 | 1.05 | 2.09 |
| 10 | Georgia | 2 | 0 | 1 | 9 | 4 | .455 | .68 | 2.05 |
| 11 | Netherlands | 4 | 5 | 4 | 30 | 16 | .243 | .79 | 1.82 |
| 12 | Belarus | 1 | 3 | 7 | 17 | 10 | .103 | 1.14 | 1.75 |
| 13 | Cuba | 1 | 5 | 5 | 19 | 11 | .089 | .98 | 1.69 |
| 14 | Armenia | 0 | 0 | 5 | 5 | 3 | .000 | 1.67 | 1.67 |
| 15 | Trinidad and Tobago | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1 | .000 | .75 | 1.50 |
| 16 | Great Britain | 16 | 9 | 8 | 90 | 61 | .264 | .54 | 1.49 |
| 17 | Switzerland | 2 | 0 | 3 | 11 | 8 | .262 | .65 | 1.44 |
| 18 | Czech Republic | 2 | 3 | 0 | 14 | 10 | .192 | .48 | 1.35 |
| 19 | Finland | 1 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 5 | .188 | 0.56 | 1.32 |
| 20 | South Korea | 8 | 10 | 6 | 58 | 48 | .166 | .50 | 1.20 |
| 21 | Panama | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 3 | .299 | .30 | 1.20 |
| 22 | Lithuania | 0 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 3 | .000 | .89 | 1.19 |
| 23 | Azerbaijan | 1 | 2 | 2 | 10 | 8 | .118 | 0.59 | 1.18 |
| 24 | Bulgaria | 1 | 1 | 2 | 8 | 8 | .131 | .52 | 1.05 |
| 25 | Romania | 4 | 1 | 3 | 21 | 21 | .187 | .37 | .98 |
| 26 | Kazakhstan | 1 | 3 | 4 | 14 | 15 | .065 | .52 | .91 |
| 27 | Hungary | 0 | 4 | 1 | 9 | 10 | .000 | .50 | .90 |
| 28 | Germany | 11 | 8 | 9 | 69 | 82 | .134 | .34 | .84 |
| 29 | France | 4 | 11 | 14 | 52 | 64 | .062 | .45 | .81 |
| 30 | Ukraine | 5 | 4 | 8 | 36 | 46 | .109 | .37 | .78 |
| 31 | Canada | 2 | 6 | 5 | 25 | 33 | .060 | 0.39 | .75 |
| 32 | Zimbabwe | 1 | 3 | 0 | 10 | 13 | .075 | .30 | .75 |
| 33 | Italy | 6 | 6 | 7 | 43 | 60 | .101 | .32 | .72 |
| 34 | Croatia | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 5 | .000 | .44 | .66 |
| 35 | Sweden | 0 | 3 | 0 | 6 | 9 | .000 | .33 | .65 |
| 36 | Russia | 10 | 14 | 18 | 86 | 142 | .070 | .30 | .61 |
| 37 | United States | 26 | 26 | 27 | 183 | 305 | .085 | .26 | .60 |
| 38 | North Korea | 2 | 1 | 4 | 14 | 24 | .084 | .29 | .59 |
| 39 | Kyrgyzstan | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 5 | .000 | .38 | .56 |
| 40 | Poland | 3 | 4 | 1 | 21 | 38 | .079 | .21 | .55 |
| 41 | Austria | 0 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 8 | .000 | .36 | .48 |
| 42 | Spain | 3 | 4 | 2 | 22 | 46 | .065 | .20 | .48 |
| 43 | Latvia | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | .000 | .44 | .44 |
| 44 | Singapore | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 5 | .000 | .22 | .44 |
| 45 | Kenya | 2 | 3 | 2 | 16 | 38 | .053 | .19 | .43 |
| 46 | Japan | 8 | 6 | 8 | 52 | 128 | .063 | .17 | .41 |
| 47 | Tunisia | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 10 | .097 | .10 | .39 |
| 48 | Greece | 0 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 11 | .000 | .27 | .36 |
| 49 | Serbia | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 10 | .000 | .20 | .30 |
| 50 | Cameroon | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 19 | .054 | .05 | .22 |
| 51 | Portugal | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 11 | .000 | .09 | .19 |
| 52 | Uzbekistan | 0 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 27 | .000 | .15 | .18 |
| 53 | China | 43 | 14 | 19 | 219 | 1,326 | .032 | .06 | .17 |
| 54 | Togo | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 7 | .000 | .15 | .15 |
| 55 | Ecuador | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 13 | .000 | .07 | .15 |
| 56 | Tajikistan | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 7 | .000 | .15 | .15 |
| 57 | Ethiopia | 2 | 1 | 0 | 10 | 79 | .025 | .04 | .13 |
| 58 | Argentina | 1 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 40 | .025 | .05 | .12 |
| 59 | Chile | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 17 | .000 | .06 | .12 |
| 60 | Algeria | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 34 | .000 | .06 | .09 |
| 61 | Chinese Taipei | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 23 | .000 | .09 | .09 |
| 62 | Malaysaia | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 27 | .000 | .04 | .07 |
| 63 | Turkey | 0 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 71 | .000 | .04 | .07 |
| 64 | Colombia | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 45 | .000 | .04 | .07 |
| 65 | Thailand | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 64 | .016 | .02 | .06 |
| 66 | Brazil | 1 | 0 | 5 | 9 | 187 | .005 | .03 | .05 |
| 67 | South Africa | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 48 | .000 | .02 | .04 |
| 68 | Indonesia | 1 | 1 | 3 | 9 | 232 | .004 | .02 | .04 |
| 69 | Morocco | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 31 | .000 | .03 | .03 |
| 70 | Vietnam | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 87 | .000 | .01 | .02 |
| 71 | Iran | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 70 | .000 | .01 | .01 |
| 72 | Egypt | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 75 | .000 | .01 | .01 |
| 73 | Mexico | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 107 | .000 | .01 | .01 |
| 74 | India | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 1,137 | .001 | .00 | .00 |
| 231 | Totals | 204 | 205 | 231 | 1457 | 6,671 | .031 | .10 | .22 |
3 comments:
nice list. you don't need total medals though. Makes the table more complicated. it's easy to add up G+S+B.
Thanks for the suggestion. I updated it now.
An additional consideration is that team sports earn but a single medal, but involve many individuals over many matches. Perhaps it would make sense to weight team sports to reflect the comparatively greater achievement of winning the Olympic basketball gold vs winning a gold in an individual event.
Differences between sports also need to be considered. For instance, gymnastics awards medals for the all around, team, in additional to medals in the individual events that make them. This is comparable to awarding Phelps a 9th gold medal for being all-around best swimmer, and a 10th for being part of the highest all-around scoring national swim team.
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