Norway is currently second in the world rankings, but wasn't in the top ten in any of the previous four years. However, Norway has been #1 or 2 per capita each year, with only Jamaica a couple times and Slovenia beating them out. The U.S. has been the best sporting nation in men's, women's by a long shot, and the overall each of the five years listed. The big picture, though, is that Europe dominates the rankings overall every year with typically over 50% scores, so it is a measure of wealth, as the authors also argue in a book called Soccernomics, which points out that Norway is tremendous at sports per capita and is also among the richest nations in the world, while the U.S. ought to eventually be the top soccer nation with the combination of its wealth, facilities, population, and diversity. Wealthy nations are advantaged by the # of sports covered, since poor nations don't typically compete at many sports, esp. winter sports, but wealthy nations also do very, very well at soccer, a sport every nation competes in. The focus at this website on sports in which Kenyans, Ethiopians, African Americans, and Jamaicans have dominated tends to make us think that poverty and/or race are keys to sports success, but not so in general.