Cruz won 28 percent of 32 percent of 19 percent of 1 percent of the country -- 0.016 percent of the nation on the whole.

The image below represents everyone in America. Or, at least, the estimated population of the country in July 2014. Each dot is not a person; each dot is 10,000 people, crammed into a little 3 pixel-by-3 pixel area.

Most but not all of those people are 18 or older, and therefore theoretically able to vote.

But the actual number of people registered to vote is much smaller. If we apply the Census Bureau's estimate of registration in 2012 to the population as a whole, this is the universe of voters in the United States.

Gallup regularly polls to see how people align politically. As of January, slightly more people identified as Democrats than Republicans. If you add in independents who lean toward one party or the other, the split is about even between the two parties.

The Democrats

— and the Republicans.

Those, essentially, are the groups that might be determining a party's nomination.

Now, here's the entire population of Iowa. (About 1 percent of the country.)

Using data from the U.S. Elections Project, we can determine how many people in Iowa are voting-eligible: People who are both old enough and who are citizens.

As of January, Iowa's base of registered voters in each party was smaller. Ignoring independents, this is how many Iowans were registered as Democrats.

And this, the Republicans. (About 19 percent of the state's population.)

Edison Research, which conducts exit/entrance polling, estimated the final turnout for the GOP caucuses at 187,000, which includes Republicans and independents. If we just slice off part of the Republican population, that's a voting population that looks like this. (About 32 percent of the registered Republicans.)

And of that group, a little over 51,000 backed Ted Cruz. (About 28 percent of those who voted.)

The narrative of the Republican caucuses is that Cruz was the winner by a wide margin. This is how many people from the broader population of the United States set that narrative in motion.

Winning Iowa is better than winning the first game of a 162-game baseball season, by virtue of the importance placed upon it and how it narrows each party's field. But when it comes to total voters involved, it's not much different.