New Zealand near top of alternative Olympic medal tallies

(Getty)
(Getty)

The Rio Games has been New Zealand's most successful Olympics ever with 18 medals, including four gold medals.

That puts the country at 15 overall for total medals won (19th for gold medals).

The United States topped the table with 116 medals, including 45 gold medals.

China won 70 medals, including 26 gold medals. Great Britain won 67 medals. Twenty-seven of them were gold medals.

But there are other ways to measure Olympic success.

What about if you adjust for economic wealth, or population?

The website Medals Per Capita has done exactly that.

It ranks nations according to Gross Domestic Product and "weighted" medals. This gives a gold four points, silver two points and bronze one point.

So, adjusting for GDP, Grenada ranks number one (it won a silver medal).

It is followed by Jamaica, with Fiji taking third place.

New Zealand ranks at number 20, with Great Britain number 33, South Africa 41, Australia at 44, China number 59 and the United States 63rd.

The website has also adjusted for population. That sees New Zealand leap up the table to number four, with one medal for every 255,316 people.

Grenada sits at number one, with one medal and a population of 106,825.

The Bahamas places second, with one medal for every 194,009 people.

Jamaica is third with one medal for every 247,812 people.

If you only consider gold medals, the Bahamas leaps to number one, with one gold for 388,019 people.

Jamaica is second, with one gold medal for 454,323 people.

Croatia is third, with one gold for every 844,880 people.

Fiji ranks number four, with one gold medal and a population of 892,145 people.

New Zealand is fifth with one gold for every 1,148,925 people.

Newshub.