Eurovision Song Contest League Tables 2014

Most Top Ten Places

I've compiled a league table of all countries that have ever participated in the Eurovision Song Contest at some point from 1956 to 2014. The way it works is simple.

If a country wins a particular year (like Austria did this year), it gets 12 points for that year. Other top ten countries in a particular year receive the following number of points for that year: 2nd = 10 points, 3rd = 8 points, 4th = 7 points, 5th = 6 points, 6th = 5 points, 7th = 4 points, 8th = 3 points, 9th = 2 points, 10th = 1 point. Any country placed 11th or below receives nul points for that year! N.B. For my analysis, in 1956 Switzerland got 12 points for winning, but the other 6 unplaced countries were flagged as Unplaced, and thus awarded no league table points for that year.

Where multiple countries have tied for a particular total, I have taken their best ever places into consideration. For example, Malta and Turkey both have 62 points. Turkey has won once, but Malta has never won, hence Turkey is ranked higher than Malta. Latvia and Romania both have 26 points, but since Latvia has won once, whereas Romania has never won, Latvia is ranked higher than Romania. Belarus and Lithuania have both finished in 6th place once each and have no other top ten places (hence the total for both countries is 5) so lower places have been considered. The second best placing for Lithuania is 13th whereas the second best placing for Belarus is 16th, which is why Lithuania has been ranked higher than Belarus.

Countries that have appeared in a grand final but have never had a top ten grand final placing (and hence have a total of 0) are ranked on their best final placing below 10th, whereas those that have debuted 2004 onwards and never reached the final are ranked on their best ever semi-final placing.

N.B. From 1956 to 2003 inclusive there was only one show. There was one semi-final plus a grand final from 2004 to 2007 inclusive, and two semi-finals plus a grand final from 2008 onwards. For the purposes of this post, the term "final" or "grand final" includes the single shows from 1956 to 2003 inclusive, and grand finals from 2004 to present.

The above is done for each year a country has participated, and all their scores added up. As you can see, despite the UK's poor performance since 1999, it still tops the league table with 313 points.

Rank	Country	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th	10th	Total
1	United Kingdom	5	15	3	5	1	2	5	1	1	3	313
2	France	5	4	7	7	2	0	2	5	0	3	243
3	Sweden	5	1	6	2	7	1	3	4	2	5	212
4	Ireland	7	4	1	3	3	3	2	2	2	4	208
5	Germany	2	4	5	3	2	3	2	8	3	2	192
6	Italy	2	2	4	2	4	4	4	2	3	1	163
7	Switzerland	2	3	3	5	2	3	0	5	1	2	159
8	Denmark	3	1	3	2	5	2	1	3	3	2	145
9	Spain	2	4	1	2	1	4	2	1	4	7	138
10	Luxembourg	5	0	2	5	1	1	1	1	2	2	135
11	The Netherlands	4	1	1	2	2	2	3	1	6	2	131
12	Norway	3	1	1	3	3	1	2	3	3	1	122
13	Israel	3	2	1	2	2	2	3	2	1	0	120
14	Belgium	1	2	0	2	2	4	4	3	1	2	107
15	Monaco	1	1	3	3	2	1	1	2	1	1	97
16	Austria	2	0	0	1	4	2	2	2	3	5	90
17	Greece	1	0	3	0	2	1	3	4	3	1	84
18	Russia	1	3	2	0	1	0	1	0	1	1	71
19	Turkey	1	1	1	3	0	0	2	0	1	1	62
20	Malta	0	2	2	0	1	1	0	3	2	2	62
21	Yugoslavia	1	0	0	3	0	1	3	2	1	0	58
22	Ukraine	1	2	1	1	0	1	1	0	0	1	57
23	Estonia	1	0	1	1	1	3	0	1	0	0	51
24	Azerbaijan	1	1	1	1	1	0	0	1	0	0	46
25	Finland	1	0	0	0	0	1	4	1	2	3	43
26	Cyprus	0	0	0	0	3	2	1	0	3	0	38
27	Iceland	0	2	0	1	0	0	1	1	0	0	34
28	Croatia	0	0	0	2	1	1	0	0	1	1	28
29	Latvia	1	0	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	26
30	Romania	0	0	2	1	0	0	0	0	1	1	26
31	Serbia	1	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	25
32	Armenia	0	0	0	2	0	0	1	2	0	1	25
33	Portugal	0	0	0	0	0	1	2	2	2	2	25
34	Bosnia & Herzegovina	0	0	1	0	0	1	1	0	2	1	22
35	Hungary	0	0	0	1	1	0	0	0	1	1	16
36	Poland	0	1	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	14
37	Serbia & Montenegro	0	1	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	14
38	Albania	0	0	0	0	1	0	1	0	0	0	10
39	Slovenia	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	1	9
40	Bulgaria	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	6
41	Moldova	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	1	6
42	Lithuania	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	5
43	Belarus	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	5
44	Georgia	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	4
45	F.Y.R. Macedonia	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
46	Slovakia	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
47	Morocco	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
48	Montenegro	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
49	San Marino	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
50	Andorra	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
51	Czech Republic	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

The above is deceptive, because the UK first entered in 1957, followed by every year from 1959 to present (57 entries to-date); and in that time clocked up 313 points, thereby topping the leader board. Azerbaijan first entered in 2008 and has had an excellent track record since, achieving 46 points in 7 appearances, but still only appears 24th out of 51 on the above table. Clearly that puts countries who debuted in the last 10 years at a disadvantage as they inevitably have far fewer entries to-date than countries that first entered in the 1950s and 1960s.

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Average By Grand Final Appearance

By dividing each country's total by the number of times it has appeared in the Eurovision Song Contest Grand Final, you get a much more accurate representation. Dividing the UK's total of 313 points by its number of final appearances (57) gives an average of 5.49 points per grand final appearance, putting it into 4th place. Dividing Azerbaijan's total of 46 points by 7 (its number of final appearances to-date) gives it a higher average of 6.57 points; i.e. 2nd place.

Where two or more countries tie for a particular average, the same tie-break rule used in the previous table is applied here. For example, Moldova and Slovenia both have equal average scores of 0.75 points, but since Moldova's highest placing is 6th, whereas Slovenia's best placing is 7th, Moldova is ranked higher than Slovenia.

N.B. In the table below, Switzerland and Germany both appear to have to have tied on 3.31 points, because all averages are shown correct to two decimal places. When shown to three decimal places, the averages are Switzerland 3.313 and Germany 3.310, which is why Switzerland is ranked higher than Germany.

Rank	Country	Total	Years in Final	Average
1	Serbia & Montenegro	14	2	7.00
2	Azerbaijan	46	7	6.57
3	Bulgaria	6	1	6.00
4	United Kingdom	313	57	5.49
5	Serbia	25	5	5.00
6	Ukraine	57	12	4.75
7	Ireland	208	44	4.73
8	Monaco	97	21	4.62
9	France	243	57	4.26
10	Italy	163	40	4.08
11	Sweden	212	53	4.00
12	Russia	71	18	3.94
13	Estonia	51	13	3.92
14	Israel	120	31	3.87
15	Luxembourg	135	37	3.65
16	Armenia	25	7	3.57
17	Denmark	145	41	3.54
18	Switzerland	159	48	3.31
19	Germany	192	58	3.31
20	Latvia	26	8	3.25
21	The Netherlands	131	47	2.79
22	Malta	62	23	2.70
23	Spain	138	54	2.56
24	Greece	84	35	2.40
25	Norway	122	51	2.39
26	Belgium	107	48	2.23
27	Yugoslavia	58	27	2.15
28	Austria	90	43	2.09
29	Turkey	62	33	1.88
30	Croatia	28	16	1.75
31	Albania	10	6	1.67
32	Romania	26	16	1.63
33	Hungary	16	10	1.60
34	Cyprus	38	25	1.52
35	Iceland	34	24	1.42
36	Poland	14	11	1.27
37	Belarus	5	4	1.25
38	Bosnia & Herzegovina	22	18	1.22
39	Finland	43	44	0.98
40	Georgia	4	5	0.80
41	Moldova	6	8	0.75
42	Slovenia	9	12	0.75
43	Portugal	25	40	0.63
44	Lithuania	5	10	0.50
45	F.Y.R. Macedonia	0	8	0.00
46	Slovakia	0	3	0.00
47	Morocco	0	1	0.00
48	Montenegro	0	1	0.00
49	San Marino	0	1	0.00
50	Andorra	0	0	0.00
51	Czech Republic	0	0	0.00

This is still deceptive, because it ignores years from 2004 onwards in which a country entered the Eurovision Song Contest but failed to reach the final. Bulgaria has had 9 entries from 2005 to 2014, but has only reached the final once so far. Under the above scheme of things, its total of 6 points is divided by 1, giving it an average of 6.00 points per grand final appearance (3rd on the leader board). The Netherlands has had 47 appearances in the final, the last being 2014, but failed to get past the semi-finals 2005 to 2012 inclusive. Dividing its total of 131 points by 47 gives an average of 2.79 points per grand final appearance, putting it at 21st place on the leader board.

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Average By Years Entered

To get an even more accurate representation, let's include the years from 2004 onwards in which a country entered the Eurovision Song Contest but failed to reach the final. Obviously a country that fails to reach the final scores no league table points for that year, just like finalists that finish below 10th. Dividing the UK's total of 313 points by its number of entries (57) gives an average of 5.49 points per year entered, now putting it into 2nd place. Dividing Azerbaijan's total of 46 points by 7 (its number of entries to-date) gives it an average of 6.57; i.e. top of the leader board.

N.B. Serbia & Montenegro entered in 2006, but withdrew at the last minute. Nonetheless they voted in the Grand Final, but didn't participate in either the Semi-final or Grand Final. Thus they have been regarded as having come last with nul points in the Semi-Final 2006 results, despite not performing in that semi-final. Consequently their total number of years entered is 3; dividing their 14 points by 3 gives an average of 4.67 per year, putting them 4th on the leader board.

Once again, the same tie-breaker rule applies where two or more countries tie for a particular average. Croatia and Hungary have tied on 1.33 points per year, but since Croatia has finished fourth place twice, whereas Hungary has finished fourth place just once, Croatia is ranked higher than Hungary. Countries whose totals are zero, and hence whose averages are zero, have been dealt with in the same manner and thus ranked in the same order as in the previous two tables.

Rank	Country	Total	Years Entered	Average
1	Azerbaijan	46	7	6.57
2	United Kingdom	313	57	5.49
3	Ukraine	57	12	4.75
4	Serbia & Montenegro	14	3	4.67
5	Ireland	208	48	4.33
6	France	243	57	4.26
7	Italy	163	40	4.08
8	Monaco	97	24	4.04
9	Russia	71	18	3.94
10	Sweden	212	54	3.93
11	Luxembourg	135	37	3.65
12	Serbia	25	7	3.57
13	Denmark	145	43	3.37
14	Germany	192	58	3.31
15	Israel	120	37	3.24
16	Armenia	25	8	3.13
17	Switzerland	159	55	2.89
18	Spain	138	54	2.56
19	Estonia	51	20	2.55
20	Greece	84	35	2.40
21	The Netherlands	131	55	2.38
22	Norway	122	53	2.30
23	Malta	62	27	2.30
24	Yugoslavia	58	27	2.15
25	Austria	90	47	1.91
26	Belgium	107	56	1.91
27	Turkey	62	34	1.82
28	Latvia	26	15	1.73
29	Romania	26	16	1.63
30	Croatia	28	21	1.33
31	Hungary	16	12	1.33
32	Iceland	34	27	1.26
33	Cyprus	38	31	1.23
34	Bosnia & Herzegovina	22	18	1.22
35	Albania	10	11	0.91
36	Finland	43	48	0.90
37	Poland	14	17	0.82
38	Bulgaria	6	9	0.67
39	Moldova	6	10	0.60
40	Georgia	4	7	0.57
41	Portugal	25	47	0.53
42	Belarus	5	11	0.45
43	Slovenia	9	20	0.45
44	Lithuania	5	15	0.33
45	F.Y.R. Macedonia	0	14	0.00
46	Slovakia	0	7	0.00
47	Morocco	0	1	0.00
48	Montenegro	0	6	0.00
49	San Marino	0	5	0.00
50	Andorra	0	6	0.00
51	Czech Republic	0	3	0.00

Now all Bulgaria's 9 entries from 2005 to 2014 inclusive are being taken into consideration, dividing its total of 6 points by 9 gives an average of just 0.67 points per year entered, pushing it way down the leader board to 38th out of 51. From 2005 to 2012 inclusive The Netherlands entered but failed to qualify, giving it a total of 55 entries to-date. Dividing its total of 131 points by 55 gives an average of 2.38 points per year entered, thereby putting it in 21st place.

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