diff --git a/python/obitools3/commands/stats.pyx b/python/obitools3/commands/stats.pyx
index e6e79f6..98341f5 100755
--- a/python/obitools3/commands/stats.pyx
+++ b/python/obitools3/commands/stats.pyx
@@ -244,7 +244,7 @@ def run(config):
            "\t   count" + \
            "\t   total" 
     print(hcat)
-    sorted_stats = sorted(catcount.items(), key = lambda kv:(kv[1], kv[0]), reverse=True)
+    sorted_stats = sorted(catcount.items(), key = lambda kv:(totcount[kv[0]]), reverse=True)
     for i in range(len(sorted_stats)):
         c = sorted_stats[i][0]
         for v in c: