Earlier this week, we examined the different ways to rank the Winter Olympics medal count. One interesting method is to list based on population rates, the idea being that it’s more impressive for a country of 10 million to win 5 medals than for a country of 100 million to win 10 medals. We crunched the numbers and our interesting findings are below.

1. Norway (still) rules

Of the 26 countries to have won a medal in Sochi, Norway is the fourth-smallest. So, it’s no surprise the current gold-medal leader comes out in front of the per-capita rankings. Heck, Norway’s per-capita gold medal rate (1 for every 508,000 people) is better than all other countries’ total medal per-capita rate, with the exception of Slovenia, which ranks No. 2 in both counts.

Norway has a population similar to the Atlanta metropolitan area (but is much better at snow removal). Yet the tiny nation has 21 medals, or more than three times the total of China, which has 270 times more people. As we’ll note later, the per capita medal count has its flaws. It’s strength is noting just how impressive Norway’s Winter Olympic feats are.

2. Europe rules too

The top 10 countries in the per capita medal count are all in Europe. With the exception of Canada, the entire top 15 also hails from that continent.

3. Red, white and eww

The United States has the most medals in Sochi, but is far down on this list, given our country’s large population. Korea has four medals compared to the 25 won by the U.S., but Korea is ahead on this list thanks to its relatively tiny population of 48 million

4. Like all medal counts, this one is far from perfect

Some of this isn’t a fair comparison. The big countries are at an inherent disadvantage. If the United States medaled in all 98 events in Sochi, its per capita rate (1 for every 3.2 million residents) would only be good for No. 12, behind Canada and all the Nordic powers. If China won all 294 medals awarded in Sochi, its per capita rate would still rank No. 13 in this list. (Minus the obvious paradox that if China won every medal, there’d be no other country on the medal count.)

No matter how well big countries like China and the United States do in the Olympics, they’ll always rank low in per-person rankings. No amount of medals will make a dent into hundreds of millions of people. Plus, small nations will always win medals. At least the two superpowers can take comfort in making the list. India is the second-biggest country in the world and has 26 Olympic medals in its history (none in the Winter Olympics). That’s just one more than the U.S. has in Sochi.

Sochi 2014 Per Capita Medal Count

=per capita sochi medal2

Medal totals as of Friday morning