There's a silver lining to the silver medal efforts from the likes of New Zealand's women's sevens team in Rio.

Don't fret about the missed opportunities in the men's sevens and equestrian – New Zealand still sits near the top of the Olympics medal table that matters most.

It's been a trying couple of days for Kiwi fans following the New Zealand team at Rio.

Blown chances to be on the dais in the team and individual events at the equestrian, Sir Gordon Tietjen's sevens outfit exiting in the quarter-finals, world champion Linda Villumsen finishing sixth in the women's cycling time trial, and some rowing crew unexpectedly slipping up have all contributed to the county's frustration.

Five days into the Games and there's only two medals to celebrate – the surprise silver to shooter Natalie Rooney and silver to the "Sevens Sisters".

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But even those commendable efforts had a touch of pain with both silvers coming in events where Australia won gold. The Aussies already have nine medals to their name.

It's not all bad though, depending how you look at it.

New Zealand are an Olympic powerhouse alongside the likes of Kosovo, Slovenia and Mongolia when the medals are weighted against population.

Heavyweights the United States and China pale by comparison.

Specialist website medalspercapita.com is trying to portray better reflection of the sporting prowess on display in Rio.

Their latest listings has New Zealand sitting fourth on a medal table headed by Hungary who have won six medals from a population of 9,844,686.

The United States struggle at No 31 and China sit lower at No 44.

The website is the work of expat Kiwi Craig Nevill-Manning, a computer scientist who now lives in New York.

He makes no apologies for coming up with the recipe.

"My bias? I'm originally from New Zealand, which has consistently been in the top half-dozen or so countries for total medals and gold medals per capita, and in 1984 won the most golds per capita," Neville-Manning said in explaining his motivation for the website.

And it mightn't be long before New zealand is sitting top of this table.

Surely the incomparable Hamish Bond and Eric Murray can deliver golden glory on the water on Friday and there's the world champion cycling men's sprint team looming as well.

OLYMPICS MEDALS PER CAPITA

1 - Hungary 6 medals, 9,844,686 population, 1,640,781 people per medal

2 - Kosovo 1 1,859,203 1,859,203

3 – Slovenia 1 2,063,768 2,063,768

4 – New Zealand 2 4,595,700 2,297,850

5 – Australia 9 23,781,169 2,642,352

6 – Mongolia 1 2,959,134 2,959,134

7 – Sweden 3 9,798,871 3,266,290

8 – Georgia 1 3,679,000 3,679,000

9 – Switzerland 2 8,286,976 4,143,488

10 – Croatia 1 4,224,404 4,224,404