Small Nations Come out big on Medals per Population

OK, so this might be a stretch to include under "race," but it does point to nations low on the world power scale doing better than the "big boys" (is that sexist?) when it comes to relative strength on the Olympic stage. (It also reveals how wacky I am when it comes to calculating odd statistics)

Yeah, the U.S. led in overall medals, and China led in golds, but "it so happens" that those are two of the biggest three nations, population-wise, in the world. A fairer measure is medals (either gold or overall) in relation to population. Here, then, is my top ten lists as compiled from the 2008 Olympics medals table and Wikipedia for population estimates:

Fewest people per medal won:

1. 165,500 Bahamas (2 medals, 331,000 pop.)
2. 246,727 Jamaica (11 medals, 2,714,000 pop.)
3. 316,000 Iceland (1 medal, 316,000 pop.)
4. 405,800 Slovenia (5 medals, 2,029,000 pop.)
5. 465,087 Australia (46 medals, 21,394,000 pop.)
6. 469,500 Cuba (24 medals, 11,268,000 pop.)
7. 475,000 New Zealand (9 medals, 4,275,000 pop.)
8. 477,850 Norway (10 medals, 4,778,500 pop.)
9. 500,333 Armenia (6 medals, 3,002,000 pop.)
10. 510,000 Belarus (19 medals, 9,690,000 pop.)

By comparison, the U.S. had a medal per 2,772,000 people, and China: one per 13,257,000. All the major Western European and East Asian countries, with the wealthiest economies in the world, had over a million people per medal won.

Fewest people per GOLD medals won:
1. 452,333 Jamaica (6 golds, 2,714,000 pop.)
2. 760,000 Bahrain (1 gold, 760,000 pop.)
3. 1,314,500 Mongolia (2 golds, 2,629,000 pop.)
4. 1,341,000 Estonia (1 gold, 1,341,000 pop.)
5. 1,425,000 New Zealand (3 golds, 4,275,000 pop.)
6. 1,465,000 Georgia (3 golds, 4,395,000 pop.)
7. 1,528,143 Australia (14 golds, 21,394,000)
8. 1,592,833 Norway (3 golds, 4,778,500 pop.)
9. 1,896,667 Slovakia (3 golds, 5,402,000 pop.)
10. 2,029,000 Slovenia (1 gold, 2,029,000 pop.)

By comparison, the U.S. won a gold for every 8,470,639 people, and China: one per 25,994,000.

Sad to say, though, that many developing countries with large populations won few or no medals: India, with well over 1.1 billion in population, won only 3 medals (1 gold); Indonesia, with almost 232 million, wone only 5 medals (1 gold); Pakistan and Bangladesh neither won any medals despite both having populations larger than Russia's. The Philippines (over 90 million) and the Democratic Republic of Congo (almost 63 million) were also shut out of any medals, while Vietnam (over 87 million) and Egypt (over 75 million) were each limited to one bronze.

Still, it's nice to see predominately black countries of the Carribean (Jamaica, Cuba, the Bahamas) doing relatively well against the powers that be.