The Rio Olympics medal table, adjusted for the size of each country's economy
The 2016 Rio Olympics saw some countries punching above their economic weight. Image: REUTERS/Luke MacGregor
There tends to be a relationship between a country's wealth and its performance at the Olympics, with wealthier countries generally winning more medals than poorer countries. Despite that, the 2016 Rio Olympics saw some countries punching above their economic weight.
Using the final medal count from the Games compiled by Google, along with 2015 GDP figures adjusted by "purchasing power parity" (PPP) that accounts for the different cost of living in different countries from the World Bank and CIA World Factbook, we determined the number of medals each country won per $100 billion of GDP.
The Caribbean island nation of Grenada came in first, as it did when we looked at a population-adjusted medal count, winning a single silver medal while having a GDP of only about $1.4 billion. The United States, which came in first place in the overall medal count, was just 60th on the GDP-adjusted measure out of the 86 countries that won at least one medal.
Here's the GDP-adjusted medal count:
Have you read?
Don't miss any update on this topic
Create a free account and access your personalized content collection with our latest publications and analyses.
License and Republishing
World Economic Forum articles may be republished in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License, and in accordance with our Terms of Use.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.
Stay up to date:
Economic Progress
Related topics:
The Agenda Weekly
A weekly update of the most important issues driving the global agenda
You can unsubscribe at any time using the link in our emails. For more details, review our privacy policy.
More on Arts and CultureSee all
Emma Charlton
November 22, 2024