Per Capita National Olympic Performance

Of course, the standard medal standings neglect obvious comparative inequities. The most glaring of these are vast differences in national populations. On a per capita basis, the US ranks only #35 in medal performance and China ranks only #53. China's 39 gold medals do represent 21% of the Olympic total. Impressive, until you realize that China has 20% of the world's population. As such, even as home country, it has only won gold in proportion to its population. Its 15% take of total medals is considerably less than its share of world population.

The leading per-capita national showings are Jamaica at #1 and Australia at #3, far outperforming other medals leaders. The strongest regions are eastern Europe with Slovenia, Slovakia, Romania, Belarus and Hungary in the top 12; and Scandinavia, with three of the region's four countries (Finland, Denmark and Norway) in the top nine.

Rank		Country	Gold	Sil- ver	Bro- nze	Total medals	4-2-1 points		pop (mil)	Gold medals /mil	Total medals /million	421 points /million
1		Jamaica	2	2	0	4	12		3	.737	1.47	4.42
2		Slovenia	1	1	2	4	8		2	.493	1.97	3.94
3		Australia	11	10	12	33	76		21	.514	1.54	3.55
4		Azerbaijan	1	2	2	5	10		3	.333	1.67	3.33
5		Slovakia	3	1	0	4	14		5	.628	.84	2.93
6		Finland	1	1	1	3	7		3	.380	1.14	2.66
7		Denmark	2	1	3	6	13		5	.364	1.09	2.37
8		Canada	2	3	4	9	18		8	.262	1.18	2.36
9		Norway	1	2	2	5	10		4	.227	1.14	2.27
10		Romania	4	1	3	8	21		11	.355	.71	1.86
11		Belarus	1	3	7	11	17		10	.103	1.14	1.75
12		Hungary	0	4	1	5	9		5	.000	.93	1.67
13		Netherlands	3	5	4	12	26		16	.182	.73	1.58
14		Trinidad and Tobago	0	1	0	1	2		1	.000	.75	1.50
15		Estonia	0	1	0	1	2		1	.000	.75	1.49
16		Switzerland	2	0	3	5	11		8	.236	.59	1.30
17		North Korea	2	1	3	6	13		10	.192	.58	1.25
18		Cuba	1	5	5	11	19		15	.065	.71	1.23
19		Panama	1	0	0	1	4		3	.299	.30	1.20
20		Germany	9	7	7	23	57		48	.187	.48	1.18
21		Great Britain	12	7	8	27	70		61	.198	.45	1.16
22		Georgia	2	0	1	3	9		8	.240	.36	1.08
23		Brazil	1	0	5	6	9		10	.100	.60	.90
24		Poland	3	3	1	7	19		21	.140	.33	.89
25		France	4	11	13	28	51		64	.062	.43	.79
26		Mongolia	1	1	0	2	6		8	.131	.26	.79
27		Zimbabwe	1	3	0	4	10		13	.075	.30	.75
28		Ukraine	5	3	8	16	34		46	.109	.35	.74
29		Italy	6	6	6	18	42		60	.101	.30	.70
30		South Korea	8	9	6	23	56		82	.097	.28	.68
31		Croatia	0	1	1	2	3		5	.000	.44	.66
32		Kyrgyzstan	0	1	1	2	3		5	.000	.38	.56
33		New Zealand	2	1	3	6	13		24	.084	.25	.55
34		Turkey	0	2	1	3	5		9	.000	.33	.54
35		United States	22	24	26	72	162		305	.072	.24	.53
36		Russia	8	13	15	36	73		142	.056	.25	.51
37		Austria	0	1	2	3	4		8	.000	.36	.48
38		Singapore	0	1	0	1	2		5	.000	.22	.44
39		Spain	3	3	2	8	20		46	.065	.17	.43
40		Kenya	2	3	2	7	16		38	.053	.19	.43
41		Kazakhstan	1	3	4	8	14		33	.030	.24	.42
42		Tunisia	1	0	0	1	4		10	.097	.10	.39
43		Japan	8	5	7	20	49		128	.063	.16	.38
44		Greece	0	1	2	3	4		11	.000	.27	.36
45		Serbia	0	1	1	2	3		10	.000	.20	.30
46		Lithuania	0	0	1	1	1		3	.000	.30	.30
47		Cameroon	1	0	0	1	4		19	.054	.05	.22
48		Indonesia	1	1	3	5	9		46	.022	.11	.20
49		Portugal	0	1	0	1	2		11	.000	.09	.19
50		Bulgaria	1	1	1	3	7		38	.026	.08	.18
51		Togo	0	0	1	1	1		7	.000	.15	.15
52		Ecuador	0	1	0	1	2		13	.000	.07	.15
53		China	39	14	14	67	198		1,326	.029	.05	.15
54		Tajikistan	0	0	1	1	1		7	.000	.15	.15
55		Uzbekistan	0	1	2	3	4		27	.000	.11	.15
56		Ethiopia	2	1	0	3	10		79	.025	.04	.13
57		Chile	0	1	0	1	2		17	.000	.06	.12
58		Algeria	0	1	1	2	3		34	.000	.06	.09
59		Chinese Taipei	0	0	2	2	2		23	.000	.09	.09
60		Sweden	0	3	0	3	6		71	.000	.04	.09
61		Czech Republic	2	3	0	5	14		187	.011	.03	.07
62		Malaysaia	0	1	0	1	2		27	.000	.04	.07
63		Colombia	0	1	1	2	3		45	.000	.04	.07
64		Thailand	1	0	0	1	4		64	.016	.02	.06
65		South Africa	0	1	0	1	2		48	.000	.02	.04
66		Argentina	0	0	1	1	1		40	.000	.02	.02
67		Vietnam	0	1	0	1	2		87	.000	.01	.02
68		Armenia	0	0	5	5	5		232	.000	.02	.02
69		Egypt	0	0	1	1	1		75	.000	.01	.01
70		Mexico	0	0	1	1	1		107	.000	.01	.01
71		India	1	0	0	1	4		1,137	.001	.00	.00
231		Totals	185	186	209	580	1321		6,671	.028	.09	.20