Yes, definitely just count the stitches on top. In the Thimblelady book I have, she talks about 12 stitches per inch, referring to just the ones on top (making each individual stitch about 1/25" of an inch). Roxanne McElroy also had that as the gold standard in her book, 'That Perfect Stitch'. But everyone I've ever read agrees that evenness is the more important goal. Even stitches look lovely, no matter their size. And some people just don't like the look of such a small stitch. Determine what look you like, and aim for evenness at that size. My spaces between stitches are consistently larger than my stitches, no matter what size the stitches are, and that goes for front and back (which doesn't really make sense when you think about it). I'm still working on getting the stitches and spaces to be the same size.