In top 100 there is only one from China, one from UK, one from Spain, one from Sweden, no one from Italy, Greece, Denmark or Romania.
You mention Sweden and Denmark, but not Norway?
Win.
Here are some suggested reasons.
First, countries like Poland, Hungary, Japan, France to some extent, possibly also The Netherlands, have a greater tradition and culture for intellectual sports. Scandinavian countries do not, nor does the US in general, but they take advantage of several "deviant" "immigrant" subcultures. I do not think it's coincidence, for example, that one of the first top US speedcubers was Macky. The US team to the International Mathematical Olympiad is always close to 100% ethnically chinese/japanese/korean. China also has a strong culture for this, but I suppose they suffer under the political conditions. The chinese government funnels a lot of money into, and tries actively to encourage excellence in certain highly profiled sports, which cubing is not.
Secondly, it is extremely easy to travel to competitions in continental Europe. This yields a large and vibrant community there, which is better able to foster new talents. In the US, on the other hand, top cubers are relatively far between and can't meet up as often.
Thirdly, key persons play a role. Ron no doubt should take a lot of credit for the dutch speedcubing community, Tyson for the thriving community around Caltech, Zbigniew for the Polish, and so on. If one of these had, by pure chance, been Spanish instead, things might've looked quite different.
Fourthly, it should not be surprising that developing parts of the world lag behind. Speedcubing itself only took off when internet became readily available, which it still isn't, in large parts of the world. Also, I'm guessing toy stores in Botswana don't carry many cubes, either.
). Is it the tradition that makes the difference?!
