The USA can keep its hoard of Olympic medals. Australia has thrashed the superpower in a far more significant world ranking.

Australia is among the top 10 healthiest countries in the world, according to the most comprehensive analysis of burden of disease and living standards to date.

Taking out 10th place among 188 countries, Australia was just four points behind top-ranked Iceland when benchmarked against 33 health-related indicators linked to the UN's sustainable development goals.

The US trailed in 28th place with an SGD index of 75 compared with Australia's 81, according to the Global Burden of Disease Study published in The Lancet.