Australia is actually the best on a per capita basis??

Question

Anyone agree???

Answer 1

no there are a few other countries better so far. but they are up there in the standing for sure

Answer 2

We are doing better on the real tally

http://simon.forsyth.net/olympics.html

Answer 3

Actually, if you go on a per capita basis, then Jamica, Slovakia, Norway, etc would be ahead of Australia.

Answer 4

It's long been known that we're the best sporting nation based on those stats. They actually show the breakdown on Sunrise every morning what our per capita medal tally is. We should actually be on 114 gold and the Brits should be on 14 gold. Watch it, it's interesting (though probably doesn't really count for much in the end).

Answer 5

they just found a new way to comfort themselves. the US is the best.

Answer 6

If you take into consideration ALL sport then you could definately say that Australia is right up there as the "best sporting nation per capita".

We have world champions in many other non-olympic sports eg. cricket, surfing, rugby league, moto-gp etc.

Would be nice to see all sports compared over a period of a few years.

*Addition - "Not_True"'s comments (below) are a bit far fetched... "Aussies are not so good this year". I don't know what Olympic Games he's following but I see them currently with the 3rd biggest medal haul and sitting pretty in the top 5 out of some 200 nations competing. I suspect you are from a nation who is underachieving :)

Answer 7

Typically Australia ranks quite well in medals per capita but never top, as there usually is some smaller countries that need only one medal to do so much better.

However this year we have New Zealand and Jamaica doing quite well and we need a good number of medals right at the end to catch them.

Answer 8

Not sure about this Olympics but the Australia Bureau of Statistics did an analysis of the last olympics. Australia came out third behind Bahamas and Norway on gold per capita. Australia was 2nd on all medals per capita, behind the Bahamas

Australia had 1 gold per 1.186 million and one medal per 412 000

Currently, at Beijing the USA is on one gold per 15.7 million and one medal per 4.6 million people. Slightly behind Australia...

Not sure how Australia works out on GDP. but since GDP increases with larger populations and Australia outperforms the USA on a population basis. I'd guess that Australia would also outperforms on a GDP basis.

At least Australia is going good this year. Best Olympics in the pool.

Answer 9

per capita Australia is good. However if one was to look at medals per Gross Domestic Produce then they'd be average if not below average. You need money to develop sport stars.  

Answer 10

Don't forget Slovakia, 3 gold medals for a population of around 5.5  million.  

Answer 11

It seems to be that way, for a country with only 20 million population it sure does perform well.

Answer 12

I think the nation of MicPhelps would actually come out on top - a population of 1 and 8 gold medals is pretty hard to beat.