Have you noticed that televised Olympic medal counts never go to the bottom of the table? Over the past fortnight, if you have followed the Rio Games, you have come upon the "medal count." ...

Ashton Eaton of the United States cements his legacy with his second decathlon gold medal: 2016 Rio Olympics medal table.

The United States has won 93 medals in total at the Rio 2016 games, of which 30 are gold – nearly double the 50 medals with 19 golds taken by Laura Trott, Mo Farah and their teammates so far.

Imagine a Martian trying to make sense of this world and the only available data are the Summer Olympic medal tables from the past century. How much would that explain? Quite a lot, it turns out.

Great Britain finish above Olympic powerhouse China in second in the medal table at Rio - after beating their London 2012 total.

The website Olympic Medals per Capita has revised the Rio rankings, ordering the countries in the Games by comparing their population size with the number of awards they have received.

The medal table provides a concise lesson in world history for the past century, reflecting wars won and lost, economic growth and decline, and a country's overall standing on the international stage.

However, its highest tally of golds – 21 – came at London 2012, finishing seventh overall. This year’s team was sitting fifth in the Rio medal table on Monday, with six golds and 26 overall.

An economic debate has erupted over each medal at the Rio Olympics costing £4m, but how much has that actually cost you?

ParalympicsGB finish the Rio Games with 147 medals and 64 golds, the most by a British team since 1988.

EDITOR'S NOTE: This story was originally published during the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro and has been updated for the Tokyo Olympics this summer.