Olympic Summer Games 2004 - Per Capita Medal Ranking

Introduction

During the Olympic Summer Games 2004 in Athens, Greece, much attention was focused on medal counts. As is customary at Olympic Games, these awards were tallied on a per team basis (in most cases, this amounts to a per country basis). This ranking method does show us from where the Games's champions hail, but it fails to account for the various sizes of the world's countries, and so high rankings are biased towards larger countries, minimising the attention paid to the achievements of teams and athletes from smaller countries.

The following table presents a variation on such country rankings, offering an alternative measurement: a ranking based on medals won per capita by country.

Notable Elements

As a Canadian, subject to the stereotypical predisposition to compare my country with our neighbour to the south, I am pleased to observe that Canadian athletes earned more medals per capita than their US competition.
Australia alone is in the top ten of this ranking and the total medal count ranking.
A similar table for the Olympic Summer Games 2008 - Per Capita Medal Ranking is also available.

Sources

Olympic Summer Games 2004 Full Medal Standings; source: The Globe & Mail at 2004-08-29 18:37 GMT.
Total Midyear Population, 2004; U.S. Census Bureau, International Data Base; 2008-08-13.

Chart of Medals Per Capita

Scatter Plot of Medals Won Per Capita by Population, Olympic Summer Games 2004, Athens

Table of Countries Ranked by Medals per Capita

		Medals						Population
Rank	Country	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total	%	Rank	Pop(M)	% Pop	Medals / Pop(M)
	World Total	301	301	327	929	100.0%		6392.4	79.0%	0.145
1	Bahamas	1	0	1	2	0.2%	58	0.3	0.0%	6.673
2	Australia	17	16	16	49	5.3%	4	20.0	0.3%	2.451
3	Cuba	9	7	11	27	2.9%	11	11.3	0.2%	2.392
4	Estonia	0	1	2	3	0.3%	51	1.3	0.0%	2.236
5	Slovenia	0	1	3	4	0.4%	46	2.0	0.0%	1.989
6	Jamaica	2	1	2	5	0.5%	37	2.7	0.0%	1.843
7	Latvia	0	4	0	4	0.4%	46	2.3	0.0%	1.734
8	Hungary	8	6	3	17	1.8%	16	10.0	0.2%	1.695
9	Bulgaria	2	1	9	12	1.3%	19	7.5	0.1%	1.596
10	Belarus	2	6	7	15	1.6%	18	9.9	0.2%	1.522
11	Greece	6	6	4	16	1.7%	17	10.6	0.2%	1.503
12	Denmark	2	0	6	8	0.9%	24	5.4	0.1%	1.478
13	Netherlands	4	9	9	22	2.4%	13	16.3	0.3%	1.348
14	Norway	5	0	1	6	0.6%	32	4.6	0.1%	1.312
15	New Zealand	3	2	0	5	0.5%	37	4.0	0.1%	1.247
16	Croatia	1	2	2	5	0.5%	37	4.5	0.1%	1.112
17	Slovakia	2	2	2	6	0.6%	32	5.4	0.1%	1.106
18	Trinidad and Tobago	0	0	1	1	0.1%	64	1.1	0.0%	0.922
19	Austria	2	4	1	7	0.8%	28	8.2	0.1%	0.856
20	Georgia	2	2	0	4	0.4%	46	4.7	0.1%	0.852
21	Romania	8	5	6	19	2.0%	14	22.4	0.3%	0.850
22	Lithuania	1	2	0	3	0.3%	51	3.6	0.1%	0.832
23	Czech Republic	1	3	4	8	0.9%	24	10.2	0.2%	0.781
24	Sweden	4	1	2	7	0.8%	28	9.0	0.1%	0.779
25	Switzerland	1	1	3	5	0.5%	37	7.5	0.1%	0.671
26	Russia	27	27	38	92	9.9%	2	143.5	2.2%	0.641
27	Azerbaijan	1	0	4	5	0.5%	37	8.0	0.1%	0.627
28	Korea, South	9	12	9	30	3.2%	9	47.9	0.7%	0.627
29	Germany	14	16	18	48	5.2%	5	82.4	1.3%	0.582
30	Italy	10	11	11	32	3.4%	8	58.1	0.9%	0.551
31	Kazakhstan	1	4	3	8	0.9%	24	15.1	0.2%	0.528
32	France	11	9	13	33	3.6%	7	62.5	1.0%	0.528
33	United Kingdom	9	9	12	30	3.2%	9	60.3	0.9%	0.498
34	Ukraine	9	5	9	23	2.5%	12	47.3	0.7%	0.486
35	Spain	3	11	5	19	2.0%	14	40.3	0.6%	0.472
36	Finland	0	2	0	2	0.2%	58	5.2	0.1%	0.384
37	Canada	3	6	3	12	1.3%	19	32.1	0.5%	0.373
38	Mongolia	0	0	1	1	0.1%	64	2.8	0.0%	0.354
39	United States	35	39	29	103	11.1%	1	293.0	4.6%	0.352
40	Israel	1	0	1	2	0.2%	58	6.6	0.1%	0.302
41	Japan	16	9	12	37	4.0%	6	127.5	2.0%	0.290
42	Belgium	1	0	2	3	0.3%	51	10.3	0.2%	0.290
43	Portugal	0	2	1	3	0.3%	51	10.5	0.2%	0.285
44	Poland	3	2	5	10	1.1%	21	38.6	0.6%	0.259
45	United Arab Emirates	1	0	0	1	0.1%	64	3.9	0.1%	0.256
46	Zimbabwe	1	1	1	3	0.3%	51	11.7	0.2%	0.256
47	Ireland	1	0	0	1	0.1%	64	4.0	0.1%	0.252
48	Taiwan	2	2	1	5	0.5%	37	22.6	0.4%	0.221
49	Korea, North	0	4	1	5	0.5%	37	22.7	0.4%	0.220
50	Kenya	1	4	2	7	0.8%	28	34.0	0.5%	0.206
51	Eritrea	0	0	1	1	0.1%	64	4.9	0.1%	0.204
52	Uzbekistan	2	1	2	5	0.5%	37	26.3	0.4%	0.190
53	Chile	2	0	1	3	0.3%	51	15.8	0.2%	0.189
54	Serbia and Montenegro	0	2	0	2	0.2%	58	10.8	0.2%	0.185
55	Paraguay	0	1	0	1	0.1%	64	6.2	0.1%	0.161
56	Argentina	2	0	4	6	0.6%	32	38.7	0.6%	0.155
57	Hong Kong	0	1	0	1	0.1%	64	6.9	0.1%	0.146
58	Turkey	3	3	4	10	1.1%	21	68.9	1.1%	0.145
59	South Africa	1	3	2	6	0.6%	32	47.0	0.7%	0.128
60	Thailand	3	1	4	8	0.9%	24	63.7	1.0%	0.126
61	Dominican Republic	1	0	0	1	0.1%	64	9.0	0.1%	0.112
62	Ethiopia	2	3	2	7	0.8%	28	72.6	1.1%	0.096
63	Iran	2	2	2	6	0.6%	32	64.3	1.0%	0.093
64	Morocco	2	1	0	3	0.3%	51	32.3	0.5%	0.093
65	Venezuela	0	0	2	2	0.2%	58	24.9	0.4%	0.080
66	Egypt	1	1	3	5	0.5%	37	76.2	1.2%	0.066
67	Cameroon	1	0	0	1	0.1%	64	16.9	0.3%	0.059
68	Syria	0	0	1	1	0.1%	64	18.0	0.3%	0.056
69	Brazil	4	3	3	10	1.1%	21	186.5	2.9%	0.054
70	China	32	17	14	63	6.8%	3	1298.8	20.3%	0.049
71	Mexico	0	3	1	4	0.4%	46	105.0	1.6%	0.038
72	Colombia	0	0	1	1	0.1%	64	42.5	0.7%	0.024
73	Indonesia	1	1	2	4	0.4%	46	226.0	3.5%	0.018
74	Nigeria	0	0	2	2	0.2%	58	134.6	2.1%	0.015
75	India	0	1	0	1	0.1%	64	1075.5	16.8%	0.001