per capita

[ per kap-i-tuh ]

adjective

1. by or for each individual person:

   income per capita.

2. Law. noting or pertaining to a method of dividing an estate by which all those equally related to the decedent take equal shares individually without regard to the number of lines of descent. Compare per stirpes.

per capita

/ pə ˈkæpɪtə /

adjective

1. of or for each person

per capita

1. A Latin phrase literally meaning “by heads,” and translated as “for each person.” It is a common unit for expressing data in statistics . A country's per capita personal income , for example, is the average personal income per person.

Word History and Origins

Origin of per capita¹

1675–85; < Latin: literally, by heads

Word History and Origins

Origin of per capita¹

Latin, literally: according to heads

Example Sentences

The per capita income in Mississippi, for example, was $216 in 1940, compared with $676 in Michigan.

From Washington Post

Marshall Burke projects that over the next 80 years, per capita GDP in the United States will drop by 36% compared to what it would be in a nonwarming world, even as per capita GDP in Russia will quadruple.

From ProPublica

At the heart of that is a demand that the state resets its contract with Chileans to focus not just on creating wealth — Chile has the highest per capita income in South America — but making sure it is distributed more equally.

From Ozy

There’s no connection between the divorce rate in Maine and per capita consumption of margarine, for example, even if those track with one another over time.

From Washington Post

More than 26,000 people had died, about 10,000 of them in New York City, where the per capita death rate had surpassed Italy’s.

From ProPublica

We see the effects of a state that spends more money per capita on prisons than it does on education.

From The Daily Beast

The highest per capita wine consumption in the world is in the Vatican.

From The Daily Beast

Higher per capita income, longer histories of democratic stability, legal status, and religion.

From The Daily Beast

Then he faced a $3.7 billion deficit, the largest in state history, and the largest per capita in the nation.

From The Daily Beast

Far less appreciated, Houston, rather than being a southern city of duller wits, actually ranks second in engineers per capita.

From The Daily Beast

When a Klan is chartered, a per capita tax of $1.85 for each member is required to be sent to the Imperial Palace.

From Project Gutenberg

The per capita wages of Japanese laborers here are, of course, amazingly low.

From Project Gutenberg

England cut her sugar allowance per capita from about seven and a half pounds a month to two, and France from nearly four to one.

From Project Gutenberg

The food for the colony at Four Oaks, usually bought at wholesale, doesn't cost more than $5 a month per capita.

From Project Gutenberg

The average consumption of wool at that time averaged not more than three pounds per capita.

From Project Gutenberg