Eurovision 2018 will always stand out in the history books for the year that 3 countries lost their 100% qualification rates from the semi-finals. Many of us here at Eurovision Ireland never dreamed we’d see the day Russia or Romania failed to make it into Saturday night’s main event… but the people of Europe had other ideas!

This got us wondering who now has the best qualification rate at Eurovision… ever thought about who that is? How many finals have they sailed through to achieve this? Or maybe you’ve pondered which countries struggle the most to reach the final?

Well, wonder  no more!

James has crunched the numbers and worked out mathematically who has the best – and conversely, the worst rates of qualification at the Eurovision Song Contest. To do this, he worked out the number of finals a country had been in since the introduction of the semi-finals in 2004 – this includes as automatic qualifiers either by hosting or being Top 10 from the previous year. This number was then divided by how many finals they could have been in. By converting this fraction into a percentage, he got the percentage of finals that country had reached out of all possible finals and thus their qualification rate.

Basically, the formula is:

Country:  (number of qualifications/potential number of qualifications) = percent qualified for

Any countries with the same percentage have been listed alphabetically. Take a look below to see who always gets it right, who almost always gets it right, and who really needs some help!

The colours? Aside from gold, silver and bronze, they’re just to make it look pretty 🙂

• Ukraine (14/14) = 100%
• Australia (4/4) = 100%
• Sweden (14/15) = 93.33%
• Romania (13/14) = 92.85%
• Russia (13/14) = 92.85%
• Azerbaijan (10/11) = 90.90%
• Bosnia & Herzegovina (9/10) = 90%
• Turkey (8/9) = 88.88%
• Greece (13/15) = 86.66%
• Armenia (10/12) = 83.33%
• Hungary (10/12) = 83.33%
• Norway (12/15) = 80%
• Denmark (11/15) = 73.33%
• Serbia (8/11) = 72.72%
• Moldova (10/15) = 66.66%
• Austria (7/11) = 63.63%
• Georgia (7/11) = 63.63%
• Israel (9/15) = 60%
• Lithuania (9/15) = 60%
• Cyprus (8/14) = 57.14%
• Croatia (7/13) = 53.84%
• Albania (8/15) = 53.33%
• Finland (8/15) = 53.33%
• Iceland (8/15) = 53.33%
• Ireland (8/15) = 53.33%
• Malta (8/15) = 53.33%
• Poland (6/13) = 46.14%
• Belgium (6/15) = 40%
• Estonia (6/15) = 40%
• Latvia (6/15) = 40%
• The Netherlands (6/15) = 40%
• Portugal (5/13) = 38.46%
• Belarus (5/15) = 33.33%
• Macedonia (5/15) = 33.33%
• Slovenia (5/15) = 33.33%
• Bulgaria (4/12) = 33.33%
• Czech Republic (2/7) = 28.57%
• Switzerland (4/15) = 26.66%
• San Marino (1/9) = 11.11%
• Andorra (0/6) = 0%
• Slovakia (0/4) = 0%
• Monaco (0/3) = 0%
  

So it’s a tie! Both Ukraine and Australia currently have 100% qualification rates for the final. It’s worth pointing out though that in the case of Australia, they’ve made it to 4 finals (1 as an automatic qualifier!) against Ukraine’s 14. It’s perhaps unsurprising that the majority of countries with an over 70% qualification rate are also countries that have won the contest, several on more than one occasion. The countries with the best qualification rates that have yet to win are:

• Australia
• Romania
• Bosnia & Herzegovina
• Armenia
• Hungary

Maybe one of these will be someone to watch come Eurovision 2019!

At the other end of the scale, Monaco, Slovakia and Andorra have never qualified for a Eurovision final since 2004. Slovakia and Monaco, however, have appeared at Eurovision finals prior to the introduction of the semis – in Slovakia’s case, only a handful in the mid 1990s. This leaves Andorra as the only country in Eurovision history to never appear at the grand final.

Poor Switzerland has (amazingly!) a worse qualification rate than that of the Czech Republic, who only managed their 2nd appearance at a Eurovision final this year in Lisbon. If we look at the countries who have won Eurovision, but have lacklustre qualification rates, we find these countries:

• Estonia
• Latvia
• The Netherlands
• Portugal
• Switzerland
  

Considering Portugal’s qualification rate, it’s quite amazing we went to Lisbon this year!

What do you think? Are you surprised at any of these results? Who do you think will keep a steady qualification rate in the years to come? Do you think Australia or Ukraine can hold on to their 100% records?

Author: James Scanlan

Source: Eurovision Ireland

Image Source: YouTube