How do the richest countries perform in the Paralympic Games?

  • By Rob Fry

The 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio drew to a close on Sunday evening and to wrap up our Olympic/Paralympic coverage we have one final chart to share that compares the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the top 30 countries on the 2016 Paralympic Games medal table.

While the 2012 Paralympic Games in London saw China topping the medals table, followed by Russia in second and Team GB in third place, the games in Rio ended rather differently.

Russia did not feature in the 2016 Paralympic Games due to the decision to ban Russian athletes from the games, and Ukraine – a country ranked 61st in the world when it comes to GDP – finished in third place. This was above the USA – a country with a level of GDP almost 200 times larger. However, the USA did improve on its London 2012 Paralympic Games ranking, finishing fourth this year, up from sixth in 2012.

In general, we might think that richer countries would perform better at these types of competition – but the performance of Ukraine compared with the USA illustrates that wealth and peak performance do not always go hand in hand.

Download the GDP data.

To embed the chart, please use the following code:

<iframe width="100%" height="750px" src="
"https://www.ons.gov.uk/visualisations/dvc365/index.html" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"/>

Brazil finishes in eighth place

The hosts Brazil, which is the ninth richest country in the world and which finished seventh in the 2012 London Paralympics, performed similarly well this year – finishing eighth on the medal table. This was higher than their finishing place of 13th in the Rio Olympic games.

Seven of the world’s richest are missing from the top 30

Of the top 20 richest countries in the world, seven are missing from this chart  – as they did not finish in the top 30 on the 2016 Paralympic Games’ medal table.

  • Russia – athletes from Russia were banned from competing in the 2016 Rio Paralympics as already mentioned
  • Japan – the third richest country in the world came 64th in the 2016 Paralympic medal table. This ranking is far below its ranking of 24th in the 2012 London Paralympics
  • Switzerland – the 19th richest country in the world also finished below its 2012 London Paralympics ranking– ending in 41st place in Rio, down from 33rd in London
  • India – the seventh richest country in the world came 43rd in the 2016 Rio Paralympics – but this was up from 67th in the 2012 London Paralympics
  • Turkey – the 18th richest country in the world finished in 34th place – but again this was a rise from its ranking of 43rd in the 2012 London Paralympics
  • Indonesia and Saudi Arabia – the 16th and 20th richest countries in the world both finished in 76th place, a ranking they shared with six other countries – Mozambique, Philippines, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Cape Verde and Romania which won 1 bronze medal each.

 

You can also take a closer look back to the London 2012 Paralympics and compare the GDP of the countries that finished in the top 30 then.

Download the GDP data.

To embed the chart, please use the following code:

<iframe width="100%" height="750px" src="
"https://www.ons.gov.uk/visualisations/dvc365/index.html" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"/>

Please note that for consistency across all our Olympics/Paralympics content we have included estimates of GDP for Argentina, North Korea, Iran and Cuba.

Other Visual.ONS articles:

No money, no medals?

Shopping in shops that have no shops

What’s in the Basket of Goods? 80 years of shopping history

For more information, please contact: digitalcontent.gsi.gov.uk

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