The Final Medal Counts

By popular demand, this is an update to my previous post looking at the final Beijing 2008 Summer Olympic Medal rankings by GDP, population, and a few other things:

Athletes from 86 countries received at least one medal.

The Bahamas receive top honors for total number of medals in proportion to their population. (2 medals and a population of around 307,451), followed by Jamaica and Iceland. Armenia drops to ninth place. Guess the islands got something.

Top 10 - Ranked by Total Medals to Population
Rank	Country	Gold Medals	Total Medals	Population
1	Bahamas	0	2	307,451
2	Jamaica	6	11	2,804,332
3	Iceland	0	1	304,367
4	Slovenia	1	5	2,007,711
5	Australia	14	46	20,600,856
6	New Zealand	3	9	4,173,460
7	Norway	3	10	4,644,457
8	Cuba	2	24	11,423,952
9	Armenia	0	6	2,968,586
10	Belarus	4	19	9,685,768

Meanwhile, Zimbabwe led for number of medals in proportion to per capita GDP, followed by China and Kenya.

Top 10 - Ranked by Total Medals to Per Capita GDP
Rank	Country	Gold Medals	Total Medals	Per Capita GDP
1	Zimbabwe	1	4	$ 179
2	China	51	100	$ 5,256
3	Kenya	5	14	$ 1,551
4	Ethiopia	4	7	$ 795
5	Cuba	2	24	$ 4,474
6	Russia	23	72	$ 14,840
7	Ukraine	7	27	$ 6,960
8	North Korea	2	6	$ 1,704
9	Uzbekistan	1	6	$ 2,269
10	US	36	110	$ 45,553

Pakistan is the most populous country not to receive any medals, followed by Bangladesh and the Philippines. The 10 largest countries not to receive any medals are:

Country	Population
Pakistan	167,762,040
Bangladesh	153,546,901
Philippines	92,681,453
Congo	66,514,506
Burma	47,758,181
Tanzania	40,213,162
Uganda	31,367,972
Nepal	29,519,114
Peru	29,180,899
Iraq	28,221,181
Saudi Arabia	28,161,417

The 5 smallest countries to receive medals:

Country	Population
Iceland	304,367
Bahamas	307,451
Bahrain	718,306
Trinidad and Tobago	1,047,366
Estonia	1,307,605

Within the Axis of Evil North Korea led in total medals, gold medals, medals to population, and medals to per capita GDP. Iraq was pretty much out of the running

Country	Gold	Total	Population	Per Capita GDP
North Korea	2	6	23,479,089	$1,704
Iran	1	2	65,875,223	$11,431
Iraq	0	0	28,221,181	$3,625

For additional rankings, check out the links on this previous post.

Scooped the Wall Street Journal

UPDATE 28 AUG 08: NEW POST WITH UPDATED FINAL STANDINGS

Last Wednesday, in an entry called Armenia Leads Olympic Medal Count, I wrote about ranking Olympic countries by the ratio of their medals to population or per capita GDP instead of by the number of gold medals or their total medal count.

Yesterday's Wall Street Journal (Weekend Edition) made the same points in an article titled The Glory of Just Showing Up.

So I'm thrilled that the level of creativity and journalism at the Wall Street Journal is sufficient to meet the standards of this blog. =)

Today The New York Times Olympic Blog also published a response, in which they rank the countries using a weighted system (4 points for gold, 2 points for silver, 1 point for bronze). By their system China is in the lead.

Yesterday The Raw Feed proposed first applying a weighting system and then determining the medal to population ratio. By their count Australia is winning.

For updated rankings of total medals or gold medals by population without weighting, Simon Forsyth is keeping tally.