Olympic Medals and Athlete Counts of the 15 Largest Countries
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This visualization highlights the world’s top 15 most populous countries, along with their relevant Olympics stats. This data was sourced from Worldometer, Olympedia, and the International Olympic Committee.
Each country’s total medal counts are as of 2022, and do not include medals won from the ongoing 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.
Olympic Medals and Athletes for the Largest Countries
The U.S. might be the world’s third-most populous country but it is the first by a mile when it comes to Olympic medals won. Between 1896–2022, the U.S. won an astounding 3,105 medals at the global event.
They also have the most athletes (nearly 600!) competing at the ongoing 2024 Paris Olympics.
CountryPopulationMedals Won
(as of 2022)Participants in
Paris 2024
India1.4B58117
China1.4B900388
U.S.342M3,105592
Indonesia280M4029
Pakistan246M127
Nigeria230M3588
Brazil218M182274
Bangladesh175M05
Russia144M779N/A*
Mexico129M101107
Ethiopia130M7934
Japan123M690403
Philippines119M1522
Egypt115M62148
D.R. Congo106M06
*Russia has been banned from the 2024 Games due to the ongoing war in Ukraine. A small number of athletes from Russia are competing under the Individual Neutral Athletes delegation (AIN). Population figures are rounded.
China, which until 2023 was the world’s most populous country, has about 400 athletes competing currently and 900 medals won by 2022.
The first, fourth and fifth most populous countries (India, Indonesia and Pakistan) have total medal hauls in the double-digits. Bangladesh (#8 in population) has zero Olympic medals, only one of two nations in the top 15 to do so.
However, Bangladesh has only been an independent country since 1971, when it split from Pakistan.
The other, the Democratic Republic of Congo, has also only been independent from 1960.
It’s apparent that that population doesn’t play a role in Olympic medals, as much as country wealth, furthering the investment in sport infrastructure and facilities to train future Olympians.
But when both combine (like in the case of the U.S. and China) there’s some serious gold to be won.
The post Ranked: Olympic Medals Held by the World’s 15 Largest Countries appeared first on Visual Capitalist.