FIFA Rankings Per Capita

A flaw with measuring the best international football team in the world is that each country is different in terms of population. Therefore, larger countries always have an advantage because they have a larger pool of potential players to pull from. The following list will somewhat factor out this problem by rating each team by their FIFA points per head of population. This table is not claimed to be a clear cut method, but at least it gives an indication as to the teams that are punching above their weight (or not).

There now follows a listing of the current FIFA world rankings per capata for May 2017

Rank	Fifa Rank	Country	Points	Population	Per Head
1	86	Faroe Islands	431	49469	0.0087125270371344
2	34	Iceland	872	301931	0.002888077077213
3	87	Montenegro	560	621383	0.00090121551442508
4	48	Cape Verde Islands	418	498897	0.0008378482933351
5	118	Andorra	66	79218	0.00083314398242824
6	75	Equatorial Guinea	287	551201	0.00052068120340856
7	115	Guam	82	165124	0.00049659649717788
8	25	Northern Ireland	823	1710300	0.00048120212828159
9	83	Cyprus	343	788457	0.00043502689430115
10	82	Qatar	369	885359	0.0004167800858183
11	63	Trinidad and Tobago	439	1065842	0.00041188093544822
12	108	Bahrain	232	586000	0.00039590443686007
13	111	Barbados	110	280946	0.00039153431620311
14	26	Wales	1119	2903085	0.00038545202775668
15	117	San Marino	12	31448	0.00038158229458153
16	69	United Arab Emirates	453	1400000	0.00032357142857143
17	9	Uruguay	1097	3431932	0.00031964502793179
18	56	Slovenia	614	2009245	0.00030558742214115
19	85	Gabon	392	1384000	0.00028323699421965
20	90	Estonia	331	1325000	0.00024981132075472
21	27	Croatia	1016	4494749	0.0002260415431429
22	23	Costa Rica	902	4075261	0.00022133551691536
23	33	Republic of Ireland	823	4062235	0.00020259783099698
24	55	Panama	607	3320000	0.0001828313253012
25	21	Bosnia and Herzegovina	815	4498976	0.00018115233333096
26	98	Armenia	527	2971650	0.00017734255380008
27	45	Jamaica	458	2780132	0.00016474037923379
28	15	Switzerland	1212	7523934	0.00016108594254017
29	24	Slovakia	846	5439448	0.00015553048765242
30	41	Albania	533	3600523	0.00014803404949781
31	59	Congo	392	2958448	0.00013250190640498
32	2	Belgium	1281	10379067	0.00012342149829074
33	37	Denmark	657	5450661	0.00012053583959817
34	8	Portugal	1259	10605870	0.00011870784763532
35	97	Latvia	265	2259810	0.00011726649585585
36	42	Scotland	589	5062011	0.00011635691822874
37	112	Mauritius	147	1296000	0.00011342592592593
38	43	Paraguay	738	6506464	0.00011342566407806
39	110	FYR Macedonia	225	2050554	0.00010972644465837
40	93	Oman	290	3102229	9.3481171119218E-5
41	10	Austria	762	8199783	9.2929288494586E-5
42	105	Lithuania	331	3575439	9.2576044508101E-5
43	70	Israel	557	6352117	8.7687301729486E-5
44	5	Chile	1411	16134219	8.745387675722E-5
45	35	Sweden	768	9016596	8.5176268294598E-5
46	50	Norway	387	4610820	8.3933009746639E-5
47	68	Bulgaria	614	7385367	8.313737150774E-5
48	20	Hungary	801	9981334	8.0249794265977E-5
49	113	New Zealand	301	4115771	7.3133320585621E-5
50	84	Honduras	524	7326496	7.1521229247924E-5
51	116	Gambia	120	1700000	7.0588235294118E-5
52	46	Tunisia	701	10175014	6.8894254101272E-5
53	39	Greece	730	10688058	6.830052756076E-5
54	40	Senegal	805	11987121	6.7155407874835E-5
55	30	Czech Republic	679	10235455	6.6338037732568E-5
56	53	Serbia	671	10150265	6.610664844711E-5
57	101	Libya	361	5551000	6.5033327328409E-5
58	73	Haiti	537	8300000	6.4698795180723E-5
59	66	Finland	335	5231372	6.403673835468E-5
60	13	Ecuador	839	13547510	6.1930199719358E-5
61	109	Georgia	274	4646003	5.8975424682248E-5
62	72	Burkina Faso	765	13228000	5.7831871787118E-5
63	91	Togo	320	5548702	5.7671145431851E-5
64	81	Bolivia	460	9119152	5.0443286831933E-5
65	54	Guinea	474	9690222	4.8915288008882E-5
66	79	Jordan	311	6459000	4.8149868400681E-5
67	14	Netherlands	792	16491461	4.8024853589382E-5
68	74	Benin	396	8439000	4.6924991112691E-5
69	57	Cameroon	779	17340702	4.4923210144549E-5
70	62	Mali	504	11716829	4.3015051256616E-5
71	77	Belarus	428	10293011	4.1581612999345E-5
72	1	Argentina	1603	39921833	4.0153466901182E-5
73	47	Peru	1044	28302603	3.6887066535894E-5
74	114	Moldova	142	4320490	3.2866642441019E-5
75	58	Australia	661	20264082	3.2619291611631E-5
76	3	Colombia	1348	43593035	3.09223709705E-5
77	28	Poland	1183	38536869	3.0697875325575E-5
78	36	Ghana	682	22409572	3.0433423717329E-5
79	22	Romania	676	22303552	3.030907363993E-5
80	6	Spain	1204	40397842	2.980357218091E-5
81	78	Zambia	334	11502011	2.903840032843E-5
82	96	Rwanda	285	10186063	2.7979406763928E-5
83	88	Guatemala	352	12728111	2.7655321359155E-5
84	99	Zimbabwe	304	12398897	2.4518309975476E-5
85	64	Saudi Arabia	646	27019731	2.3908454158926E-5
86	94	Syria	426	19405000	2.1953104869879E-5
87	11	England	1103	50431700	2.1871164366857E-5
88	65	Uzbekistan	586	27307134	2.1459593672481E-5
89	76	Venezuela	595	27730469	2.1456542981657E-5
90	17	France	1294	60876136	2.1256276843852E-5
91	12	Italy	1165	58133509	2.0040077057795E-5
92	61	Morocco	633	33241259	1.9042600041112E-5
93	32	Algeria	628	33333216	1.8840066317033E-5
94	71	Uganda	463	25827000	1.7926975645642E-5
95	4	Germany	1464	82422299	1.776218350813E-5
96	92	Mozambique	323	18863000	1.7123469225468E-5
97	19	Ukraine	761	46710816	1.6291729949654E-5
98	102	Angola	189	12127071	1.5584966889367E-5
99	49	Korea Republic	700	48846823	1.4330512344682E-5
100	18	Turkey	863	70413958	1.2256092747975E-5
101	38	Iran	820	68688433	1.1937963412268E-5
102	44	Egypt	910	78887007	1.1535486445822E-5
103	51	Congo DR	712	62600000	1.1373801916933E-5
104	67	South Africa	539	47432000	1.1363636363636E-5
105	107	Kenya	428	37953840	1.1276856307557E-5
106	104	Cuba	124	11382820	1.0893609843606E-5
107	95	Iraq	278	27499638	1.0109223983239E-5
108	16	Mexico	1076	107449525	1.0014004249902E-5
109	89	Canada	312	31413990	9.9318806684538E-6
110	7	Brazil	1672	188078227	8.889917916974E-6
111	60	Nigeria	726	131859731	5.5058507589402E-6
112	52	Japan	685	127463611	5.3740828039149E-6
113	103	Ethiopia	265	51700000	5.1257253384913E-6
114	106	Sudan	155	37960000	4.0832455216017E-6
115	29	Russia	561	142893540	3.9259997337878E-6
116	100	Thailand	245	63360000	3.8667929292929E-6
117	31	USA	847	298444215	2.8380513256054E-6
118	80	China PR	425	1321851888	3.2151862387778E-7

Possible Future Updates

Add data from World Football Elo Ratings

Add your own comment below and let others know what you think. Its' quick, simple and has no login or signup:

Want to know how to get more traffic to your website? Here is a simple 3-step online demo: - Go to our website and click on DEMO link; - Type your website and any keyword; - Click on VIEW ONLINE DEMO and see your website banner on top of search results. Interested? If your answer is yes then fill in the online quote and start getting tons of organic search engine traffic from your keywords.
By Gary Charles on 27/10/2024

I believe that for this to make any sense at all one has to look at not just population but also the significance of what the nation has won. That being said, Uruguay is so far ahead of all others itâ€™s truly incredible.
By Richard on 30/03/2022

Haha. Even if China were #1 in the rankings they would _still_ be last on this list. I understand the idea this meant to convey, but the execution is naive.
On 30/03/2022

why only 118 countries???
By Eluwina on 17/09/2020

Where is India or even Pakistan or Bangladesh? I believe they would be even below China in the Points per Capita Ranking.
By The aggregated soccer world ra on 14/04/2020

FIFA Rankings Per Capita

Possible Future Updates

Add Your Own Comment

Previous Comments For This Page