07 August 2012

Americans Doing Nearly as Well as North Koreans in 2012 Olympics: Per Capita Rankings

Americans are 3X as likely to have won a medal than the average world citizen, which makes them nearly as athletic as North Koreans. More precisely, Americans are 3.08 times more likely to have a medal, and North Koreans are 3.11 times more likely. As of yesterday, the 25 million North Koreans share 5 medals, and the 314 million Americans share 63.

After Kirani James won his gold medal yesterday in the 400 meter, Grenada is at the top of the list for per capita medal count, with one medal for each of its 105,000 citizens.

Unsurprisingly, India is at the bottom of the list (of countries that have won medals), with one medal for every 403k citizens. While China dominates and may well finish with the most medals, its per capita medal count is below average, putting it between Iran and Ethiopia.

Host Great Britain is, rather fittingly, doing the best of all the big countries. Its citizens are 10X more likely than average to have won a medal.

Jamaica has the world's fastest human beings and seems to dominate Olympic news coverage, but actually finishes fourth place in per capita medal count, behind Grenada, Slovenia, and New Zealand, and just ahead of Denmark.

Here's the table with the per capita medal count ranking through 6 August.

Rank Country Medals Population Pop. / Medal Compared to Avg.
1 Grenada 1 105,000                    105,000                146.21
2 Slovenia 4 2,057,910                    514,478                  29.84
3 New Zealand 8 4,434,400                    554,300                  27.70
4 Jamaica 4 2,705,827                    676,457                  22.69
5 Denmark 8 5,584,758                    698,095                  21.99
6 Cyprus 1 838,897                    838,897                  18.30
7 Australia 22 22,692,531                 1,031,479                  14.88
8 Belarus 8 9,457,500                 1,182,188                  12.99
9 Hungary 8 9,962,000                 1,245,250                  12.33
10 Estonia 1 1,294,236                 1,294,236                  11.86
11 Trinidad and Tobago 1 1,317,714                 1,317,714                  11.65
12 Slovakia 4 5,445,324                 1,361,331                  11.28
13 Mongolia 2 2,844,000                 1,422,000                  10.80
14 Croatia 3 4,290,612                 1,430,204                  10.73
15 Great Britain 43 62,262,000                 1,447,953                  10.60
16 Netherlands 11 16,738,836                 1,521,712                  10.09
17 Sweden 6 9,495,113                 1,582,519                     9.70
18 Lithuania 2 3,187,700                 1,593,850                     9.63
19 Cuba 7 11,247,925                 1,606,846                     9.55
20 Armenia 2 3,268,500                 1,634,250                     9.39
21 Qatar 1 1,699,435                 1,699,435                     9.03
22 Moldova 2 3,559,500                 1,779,750                     8.63
23 Czech Republic 5 10,504,203                 2,100,841                     7.31
24 Korea 22 48,580,000                 2,208,182                     6.95
25 Georgia 2 4,497,600                 2,248,800                     6.83
26 Romania 8 19,042,936                 2,380,367                     6.45
27 Kazakhstan 7 16,776,000                 2,396,571                     6.41
28 France 27 65,350,000                 2,420,370                     6.34
29 Norway 2 5,027,800                 2,513,900                     6.11
30 Singapore 2 5,183,700                 2,591,850                     5.92
31 Azerbaijan 3 9,235,100                 3,078,367                     4.99
32 Russia 42 143,117,000                 3,407,548                     4.51
33 Canada 10 34,880,400                 3,488,040                     4.40
34 Germany 23 81,859,000                 3,559,087                     4.31
35 Serbia 2 7,120,666                 3,560,333                     4.31
36 Italy 17 60,820,787                 3,577,693                     4.29
37 Belgium 3 10,951,266                 3,650,422                     4.21
38 Puerto Rico 1 3,725,789                 3,725,789                     4.12
39 Switzerland 2 7,952,600                 3,976,300                     3.86
40 Japan 28 127,530,000                 4,554,643                     3.37
41 Dominican Republic 2 9,445,281                 4,722,641                     3.25
42 Poland 8 38,501,000                 4,812,625                     3.19
43 DPR Korea 5 24,554,000                 4,910,800                     3.13
44 US 63 314,059,000                 4,985,063                     3.08
45 Ukraine 9 45,565,909                 5,062,879                     3.03
46 Tunisia 2 10,673,800                 5,336,900                     2.88
47 Greece 2 10,787,690                 5,393,845                     2.85
48 Finland 1 5,413,830                 5,413,830                     2.84
49 Hong Kong, China 1 7,103,700                 7,103,700                     2.16
50 Kenya 5 42,749,000                 8,549,800                     1.80
51 Spain 5 46,163,116                 9,232,623                     1.66
52 Colombia 4 46,638,000              11,659,500                     1.32
53 South Africa 4 50,586,757              12,646,689                     1.21
54 Guatemala 1 14,713,763              14,713,763                     1.04
- total 458     7,031,000,000         15,351,528                     1.00
55 Iran 4 75,149,669              18,787,417                     0.82
56 China 65 1,347,350,000              20,728,462                     0.74
57 Ethiopia 4 84,320,987              21,080,247                     0.73
58 Mexico 5 112,336,538              22,467,308                     0.68
59 Chinese Taipei 1 23,261,747              23,261,747                     0.66
60 Brazil 8 192,376,496              24,047,062                     0.64
61 Saudi Arabia 1 27,136,977              27,136,977                     0.57
62 Venezuela 1 27,150,095              27,150,095                     0.57
63 Malaysia 1 28,334,135              28,334,135                     0.54
64 Uzbekistan 1 29,123,400              29,123,400                     0.53
65 Argentina 1 40,117,096              40,117,096                     0.38
66 Egypt 2 82,473,000              41,236,500                     0.37
67 Thailand 1 65,479,453              65,479,453                     0.23
68 Turkey 1 74,724,269              74,724,269                     0.21
69 Indonesia 2 237,641,326            118,820,663                     0.13
70 India 3 1,210,193,422            403,397,807                     0.04

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