Following the Eurovision Grand Final we have had a chance to crunch the numbers on a variety of topics.
Today, we look at the average Eurovision ranking of each country. We have done this for the period of 2015 to 2022, since Australia has been in the Contest.
Although no official rankings are provided for those outside the Grand Final, we have taken those used by Eurovisionworld which take into account the points of each country who did not qualify from the semi-finals (eg Croatia finished 26th as the best non-qualifier and Slovenia 40th which received the lowest points from the semi-finals).
We have reviewed the stats and have our updated ranking for 2022 with last year's ranking in brackets.
Firstly, let's look at 44th down to 11th place.
44. Montenegro - 32.67 [42]
43. Ireland - 32.29 [43]
42. San Marino - 32.14 [43]
41. Georgia - 29.86 [39]
40. North Macedonia - 29.86 [41]
39. Latvia - 28.14 [38]
38. Slovenia - 28.00 [33]
37. Finland - 27.71 [40]
36. Belarus - 27.40 [37]
35. Bosnia and Herzegovina - 27.00 [34]
34. Croatia - 26.83 [34]
33. Iceland - 26.71 [36]
32. Denmark - 24.57 [28]
31. Czech Republic - 23.86 [30]
30. Switzerland - 23.71 [32]
29. Albania - 23.57 [24]
28. Austria - 23.43 [18]
27. Malta - 23.43 [19]
26. Poland - 22.57 [31]
25. Germany - 22.43 [21]
24. Armenia - 22.17 [23]
23. Estonia - 21.86 [27]
22. Greece - 21.29 [28]
21. Romania - 21.17 [20]
19. Spain - 20.14 [25]
19. UK - 20.14 [26]
18. Portugal - 19.83 [22]
17. Hungary - 19.20 [16]
16. Moldova - 18.71 [17]
15. Lithuania - 18.43 [15]
14. Cyprus - 17.71 [10]
13. Belgium - 16.86 [12]
11. Israel - 16.71 [8]
11. Azerbaijan - 16.71 [13]
Before we get to the Top 10 let's look at some of the big movers.
UK and Spain, who finished 2nd and 3rd this year respectively, both move up into the Top 20 at 19th. This is a jump of seven places for the UK and six places for Spain.
Portugal continues its stunning turn around since 'Amar pelos dois'. After finishing 12th last year, Maro's 9th place this year saw them rise from 22nd to 18th overall.
Greece continues to climb out of the wilderness, to two top 10s in a row have seen them rise to 22nd (28th last year). Poland's best result since 2016 sees them climb five spots to no.26.
On the down side, Israel's first NQ since 2014 and Cyprus's first NQ since 2013 sees them both drop out of the Top 10.
Austria dropped significantly from 18th to 28th, Malta also fell from 19th to 27th, as did Germany, down from 21st to 25th.
The Top 10 Countries:
10. Serbia - 16.41 [14]
Konstrakta's 5th place was the best result since 2012. Serbia are remarkably consistent at Eurovision. They finished inside the Top 20 on six of the last seven occasions only missing out in 2017 where a semi-final 11th saw them finish 28th overall.
9. The Netherlands - 15.43 [11]
The Dutch finished 11th place for the third time in six years! S10's impressive placing improves the ranking for The Netherlands. Interestingly, since 2015 they have only finished in the Top 10 on one occasion - in 2019 when they won the whole contest with 'Arcade'.
7. Norway - 14.00 [9]
Subwoolfer gave Norway their fourth Top 10 finish since 2015 to prove themselves as one of the most reliable Eurovision nations. They have only missed the final once in the last seven years, when 'Icebreaker' finished 31st overall in 2016.
7. France - 14.00 [6]
The French led the way in the Big 5 renaissance in recent years (other than Italy of course). Following a great run of two top 10s and three other entries from 12th to 16th, they had a stumble this year with Alvan and Ahez unlucky in 24th. However, they still maintain a solid overall ranking.
6. Bulgaria - 13.80 [3]
This year saw Bulgaria not qualify for a Grand Final since the big comeback of the nation from 2015 onwards. They have competed five times since then with a 2nd, 4th, 11th and 14th which had them as the 3rd best average ranking. Intelligence Music Project finished 38th this year dropping Bulgaria down to 6th.
5. Australia - 13.43 [7]
Sheldon Riley's excellent 15th in the Grand Final solidified Australia's place as one of the best countries at Eurovision since our arrival in 2015. After last year's stumble of not qualifying remotely, another Grand Final appearance with a good ranking saw Australia climb two spots as Bulgaria and France fell.
4. Russia - 10.60 [4]
The banned nation will maintain their average for some time to come.
3. Ukraine - 9.60 [5]
Ukraine's second win six years saw them climb ahead of Russia and Bulgaria to 3rd place overall. They have only competed five times since Australia entered and have a 100% qualifying record as well as three sets of Top 5 finishes.
2. Sweden - 5.86 [2]
Sweden fell to 2nd place in the average rankings last year and didn't quite do enough to take back 1st place this year. This is despite their best result (4th) since 'Heroes' won the title in 2015. In the last seven years the have made the Top 5 on five separate occasions.
1. Italy 5.57 [1]
The new number one country held their place thanks to an impressive 6th place host nation finish in Turin. This is the sixth Top 10 finish for Italy in the last seven years which included a 1st, 2nd and a 3rd.
The average rankings over time do reward the more consistent nations, however as we have seen every year, a country that has been struggling can pull a remarkable result from no where.
Will the 2023 title go to a steady pair of hands or a wildcard nation ready to take a title, only time will tell.