Kenya best nation in 2013 for sporting value of its GDP

One of the objectives of GSN’s Global and Per Capita rankings is to offer new insights into how the sporting performance of nations is affected by factors other than sporting results themselves.

For example we weigh GSN Global Cup points against the number of inhabitants for each country, yielding a measure of how ‘sporty’ a nation is – how many citizens it needs to score one GSN point – as in the Per Capita Cup.

 

We have now matched Gross Domestic Product (GDP, the market value of all final goods and services produced by a nation) data with our Global Cup ranking in order to determine which nation achieves the greatest sporting success relative to its wealth. In other words, which country can squeeze the best results out of its national output, irrespective of how large or small it is.

 

The ‘top thirty’ GDP/GSN table below refers to the sporting results for the year 2013, matched to the countries 2012 GDP data, and offers a new insight and a fresh winner…..

 

Kenya has just pipped Jamaica at the post for the GDP/GSN title in 2013. The East African nation, 14^th in the overall Global Cup and only 24^th in the Per Capita ranking, has a GDP/GSN points ratio of 25.21. In other words, it needs 25,2 million USD of its GDP to score a point, compared e.g. to the sum of 2,8 billion USD the USA needs to do the same!

Kenya, with a population (2013 estimate) of 44,037,656, ranked 31^st in the world, has scored points in only 3 sports in 2013 (Athletics, Marathon and Rugby Union) but has won the Marathon sport and finished second behind the USA  in Athletics (Track & Field), while winning the sports group Athletics (the sum of Track & Field, Marathon and Cross Country Running).

 

Behind Kenya are two countries with less than 10 mill. inhabitants, Jamaica and Serbia. While the former has scored points in three sports only (Athletics, Basketball and Taekwondo), the latter has a wider range, scoring points in 11 different sports, the top contributions coming from Tennis, Volleyball and Handball.

 

A glean at the top thirty GDP/GSN 2013 table below also shows a good performance by Asian countries (4 in the top 20) and an overwhelmingly strong performance by former Soviet bloc-countries: between former Soviet republics and former or current ‘Communist’ countries, we count 15 of these nations among the top 20! Not surprisingly, Russia is also the only country from the Global Cup top ten table to feature in the GDP/GSN top thirty (in 28^th place).

 

Power to the sporting people indeed.

 

A few notes on the figures:

- GDP: we used the 2012 absolute nominal GDP figures published by the International Monetary Fund, integrated in some cases with UN data. The source is Wikipedia

- GDP/GSN ratio: it’s expressed in million USD

- We created a qualifying threshold, as for the Per Capita Cup. Countries need to have at least 10 appearances in the top 8 places of any event during the course of the year. Without this threshold, countries with low GDP and points from a single event would dominate the top of the table.