Gold medals per population and GDP since 1996
Rank | Country name | Country | Golds | Golds per person | Golds per GDP |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
USA | USA | 284 | 0.86 | 13.649 | |
China | CHN | 226 | 0.157 | 15.208 | |
Russia | RUS | 169 | 1.158 | 115.431 | |
Great Britain | GBR | 118 | 1.738 | 44.726 | |
Germany | DEU | 100 | 1.194 | 26.451 | |
Australia | AUS | 89 | 3.49 | 66.682 | |
France | FRA | 77 | 1.18 | 30.179 | |
Italy | ITA | 70 | 1.158 | 37.874 | |
South Korea | KOR | 65 | 1.268 | 40.963 | |
Japan | JPN | 79 | 0.625 | 16.088 | |
Cuba | CUB | 49 | 4.326 | 536.398 | |
Hungary | HUN | 48 | 4.969 | 320.13 | |
Netherlands | NLD | 51 | 2.976 | 57.540 | |
Ukraine | UKR | 35 | 0.8 | 246.046 | |
Romania | ROU | 31 | 1.611 | 124.686 | |
Spain | ESP | 30 | 0.642 | 24.049 | |
Poland | POL | 29 | 0.766 | 49.923 | |
Brazil | BRA | 28 | 0.132 | 20.531 | |
New Zealand | NZL | 27 | 5.599 | 139.502 | |
Canada | CAN | 25 | 0.662 | 15.622 | |
Jamaica | JAM | 22 | 7.430 | 1,546.247 | |
Kenya | KEN | 22 | 0.409 | 217.718 | |
Greece | GRC | 19 | 1.823 | 97.749 | |
Iran | IRN | 20 | 0.238 | 32.751 | |
Ethiopia | ETH | 17 | 0.148 | 177.847 | |
Norway | NOR | 20 | 3.689 | 54.587 | |
Czech Republic | CZE | 19 | 1.774 | 78.521 | |
Kazakhstan | KAZ | 15 | 0.799 | 90.509 | |
Denmark | DNK | 17 | 2.935 | 50.055 | |
Sweden | SWE | 16 | 1.584 | 30.243 | |
Switzerland | CHE | 16 | 1.849 | 22.603 | |
Turkey | TUR | 15 | 0.178 | 23.097 | |
Belarus | BLR | 13 | 1.376 | 225.272 | |
Bulgaria | BGR | 14 | 2.015 | 206.134 | |
Croatia | HRV | 14 | 3.41 | 246.618 | |
North Korea | PRK | 10 | 0.388 | 555.556 | |
South Africa | ZAF | 11 | 0.185 | 38.926 | |
Slovakia | SVK | 10 | 1.832 | 98.143 | |
Thailand | THA | 10 | 0.143 | 19.639 | |
Argentina | ARG | 8 | 0.177 | 20.901 | |
Georgia | GEO | 10 | 2.507 | 612.895 | |
Azerbaijan | AZE | 7 | 0.69 | 168.003 | |
Belgium | BEL | 10 | 0.863 | 19.864 | |
Uzbekistan | UZB | 10 | 0.299 | 167.305 | |
Bahamas | BHS | 7 | 17.801 | 605.536 | |
Colombia | COL | 5 | 0.098 | 18.873 | |
Indonesia | IDN | 6 | 0.022 | 5.511 | |
Lithuania | LTU | 5 | 1.837 | 90.803 | |
Slovenia | SVN | 8 | 3.848 | 154.434 | |
Taiwan | TWN | 7 | 0.294 | 11.014 | |
Algeria | DZA | 4 | 0.091 | 27.151 | |
Austria | AUT | 5 | 0.555 | 11.550 | |
Finland | FIN | 4 | 0.722 | 14.933 | |
Ireland | IRL | 6 | 1.215 | 15.035 | |
Mexico | MEX | 4 | 0.031 | 3.845 | |
Cameroon | CMR | 3 | 0.113 | 76.852 | |
Dominican Republic | DMA | 3 | 0.277 | 38.519 | |
Latvia | LVA | 4 | 2.121 | 121.157 | |
Nigeria | NGA | 3 | 0.015 | 6.772 | |
Serbia | SRB | 6 | 0.687 | 115.387 | |
Tunisia | TUN | 4 | 0.338 | 101.973 | |
Armenia | ARM | 2 | 0.675 | 156.091 | |
Bahrain | BHR | 2 | 1.175 | 57.763 | |
Chile | CHL | 2 | 0.105 | 8.149 | |
Estonia | EST | 3 | 2.262 | 98.464 | |
Mongolia | MNG | 2 | 0.61 | 149.421 | |
Morocco | MAR | 3 | 0.081 | 26.733 | |
Portugal | PRT | 2 | 0.196 | 9.021 | |
Trinidad and Tobago | TTO | 2 | 1.429 | 88.036 | |
Zimbabwe | ZWE | 2 | 0.135 | 142.837 | |
Burundi | BDI | 1 | 0.084 | 319.387 | |
Costa Rica | CRI | 1 | 0.196 | 16.766 | |
Ecuador | ECU | 3 | 0.170 | 32.231 | |
Egypt | EGY | 2 | 0.02 | 5.527 | |
Fiji | FJI | 2 | 2.231 | 508.647 | |
Grenada | GRD | 1 | 8.887 | 931.099 | |
Hong Kong | HKG | 2 | 0.267 | 5.860 | |
India | IND | 2 | 0.001 | 0.771 | |
Israel | ISR | 3 | 0.347 | 7.824 | |
Ivory Coast | CIV | 1 | 0.038 | 16.26 | |
Jordan | JOR | 1 | 0.098 | 23.469 | |
Kosovo | KOS | 3 | 1.657 | 400.855 | |
Mozambique | MOZ | 1 | 0.032 | 68.695 | |
Panama | PAN | 1 | 0.232 | 16.588 | |
Puerto Rico | PRI | 2 | 0.699 | 21.284 | |
Singapore | SGP | 1 | 0.171 | 2.963 | |
Syria | SYR | 1 | 0.057 | 15.385 | |
Tajikistan | TJK | 1 | 0.105 | 126.614 | |
Uganda | UGA | 3 | 0.066 | 79.506 | |
United Arab Emirates | ARE | 1 | 0.101 | 2.826 | |
Venezuela | VEN | 2 | 0.07 | 41.144 | |
Vietnam | VNM | 1 | 0.01 | 2.936 |
Golds per person = Number of golds ÷ population (millions)
Golds per GDP = Number of golds ÷ GDP (trillions)
Summer Olympic medal tables often look familiar – the USA, China, Great Britain, Russia and Australia usually dominate. But that doesn’t show the whole picture. These nations have larger populations and more money to spend than average.
To uncover the real Olympic champion, we worked out which countries have won the most gold medals per person and per national wealth since 1996. Click on golds per person and golds per gross domestic product (GDP) in the table above to get a better picture.
We start in Atlanta ’96 because that was the first summer Olympics without the USSR. The USSR were a huge medal winner so a time span both with and without them gives inconsistent data.
Jamaica are top dogs
Nakul Shah
Author
In 2016, I worked on my first client to help write a white paper for a crypto and blockchain project they were building, and started delving deeper into blockchain and distributed ledger technology.
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