South Africans are the 40th strongest in the world – research

When it comes to brute strength, we South Africans have always known we’re among the strongest in the world, but now that’s backed up by research.

Life Vault, an online survey site that shows stats based on countries’ strongest people, scoured through five years of data in the sport of powerlifting and came up with a list of the world’s strongest nations.

The data was provided by Open Powerlifting and focused on three main categories – the squat, the bench press, and the deadlift.

What the data revealed was that the world’s strongest men and women are American, South Africa’s ranked mid-table out of 81 countries, placing below Africa’s leading nation Libya, while Australia rounded off the top 10 strongest nations and the Cayman Islands came in as the world’s weakest nation, placing 81st.

South Africa’s results: average squat: 530lbs (240.4kg); average bench press: 357lbs (161.9kg); average deadlift: 594lbs (269.4kg).

10 strongest countries in 2023:
1. United States
2. France
3. Sweden
4. England
5. Canada
6. Italy
7. New Zealand
8. Germany
9. Spain
10. Australia

5 weakest countries in 2023:
81. Cayman Islands
80. Moldova
79. Panama
78. Sri Lanka
77. Cyprus

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