Who beats China and the USA on the Olympics leader board?

August 7, 2012 | Comments Off

As it stands right now, the People’s Republic of China is in a near dead heat with the United States of America for the largest number of Olympic medals. But is that a fair comparison?

For a statistician, population counts mean everything. When we consider the number of medals won by each country as a ratio of their population size, the USA and China are not even close to the top of the pack.

Grenada, with its single medal and a population of just over 100 000, blows all other countries out of the water. Four medals and a population of just over 2 million, puts Slovenia firmly in second place.

Canada is in 34th place, USA is in 45th place, and China is in 57th place. And our fine host, Great Britain, sits nicely in 15th place.

Firmly in last place sits India with just one medal and a population of more than a billion people.

For my money, I’m betting on Grenada. Go Grenada!

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