Medal Tally by World Population: ABS Website Information NOW OUT, Sep 2000

   Page tools: Print Print Page Print all pages in this productPrint All

MEDIA RELEASE

September 20, 2000
Embargoed: 11:30 AM (AEST)
125/2000
Medal Tally by World Population: ABS Website Information NOW OUT

Attention: News Editors, Olympic Reporters

Australia currently leads the world in terms of its Olympic achievements when the populations of competing nations are taken into account, according to figures released today on the Australian Bureau of Statistics' website.

The ABS said the traditional measure of medals as a 'raw score' did not take into account the many factors, such as population of the competing country, which could have a bearing on the ability of national teams to win medals. When this was considered it presented a different picture to the traditional measure.

ABS said the analysis was based on United Nations population figures and the medal tally from the official games site. It showed that Australia's tally at the close of events on 19 September equates to one medal for each 1,111,000 of the population. Using this methodology the full ranking is as follows:


Country
Medals Won
Population
Population per medal
Gold
Silver
Bronze
Total
'000
'000
Australia
6
5
6
17
18,886
1,111
Slovakia
0
3
1
4
5,387
1,347
Estonia
0
0
1
1
1,396
1,396
Switzerland
1
2
1
4
7,386
1,847
Costa Rica
0
0
2
2
4,023
2,012
Bulgaria
2
1
1
4
8,225
2,056
Latvia
0
0
1
1
2,357
2,357
Cuba
1
1
2
4
11,201
2,800
Netherlands
3
1
1
5
15,786
3,157
Belarus
0
1
2
3
10,236
3,412
Czech Republic
1
0
2
3
10,244
3,415
Lithuania
1
0
0
1
3,670
3,670
Sweden
1
0
1
2
8,910
4,455
Croatia
1
0
0
1
4,473
4,473
France
5
6
2
13
59,080
4,545
Kyrgyzstan
0
0
1
1
4,699
4,699
Georgia
0
0
1
1
4,968
4,968
Hungary
1
1
0
2
10,036
5,018
Belgium
0
0
2
2
10,161
5,081
Greece
0
1
1
2
10,645
5,323
Romania
2
1
1
4
22,327
5,582
Korea, Republic
1
4
3
8
46,844
5,856
Italy
3
2
3
8
57,298
7,162
Britain
1
3
2
6
58,830
9,805
Portugal
0
0
1
1
9,875
9,875
Ukraine
2
3
0
5
50,456
10,091
Yugoslavia
0
1
0
1
10,640
10,640
Germany
2
3
2
7
82,220
11,746
Korea, People's Democratic Republic
0
1
1
2
24,039
12,020
United States
7
6
5
18
278,357
15,464
Canada
1
0
1
2
31,147
15,574
Russia
2
4
3
9
146,934
16,326
Japan
3
3
1
7
126,714
18,102
Spain
1
0
1
2
39,630
19,815
Chinese Taipei
0
1
0
1
22,113
22,113
Turkey
2
0
0
2
66,591
33,296
South Africa
0
0
1
1
40,377
40,377
Thailand
0
0
1
1
61,399
61,399
Brazil
0
1
1
2
170,115
85,058
China
6
2
7
15
1,277,558
85,171
Mexico
1
0
0
1
98,881
98,881
Indonesia
0
0
2
2
212,107
106,054
India
0
0
1
1
1,013,662
1,013,662

(a) The population figures come from the United Nations Population Division, except the values for Chinese Taipei which are estimated.
(b) The population for Australia shown here differs from that shown by the Australian Population Clock as different assumptions are used in projecting the population. The assumptions here are comparable with those for other countries

The ABS information can be found at www.abs.gov.au under the heading 2000 Sydney Olympics.

Media organisations are invited to create links from their websites to this page as part of their Olympic coverage. The table will be updated each week day at approximately 11.30am, using the medal tally from the close of events the previous day.

The ABS website also contains a variety of other information about Australia, Australians and sport and the Olympics.