per capita

[per kap-i-tuh]

See more synonyms for per capita on Thesaurus.com

adjective, adverb

by or for each individual person: income per capita.
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.

Origin of per capita

1675–85; < Latin: literally, by heads

Can be confusedper annum per capita per diem

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words for per capita

proportionately

Examples from the Web for per capita

Contemporary Examples of per capita

By the early 1980s, the UK's per-capita GDP was lower than that of Italy.
Thatcher's Economic Legacy
Megan McArdle
April 8, 2013
But by 1920, American per-capita GDP exceeded that of the British Isles.
American Household Gadget Exceptionalism
Megan McArdle
February 7, 2013
To be sure, Canada is a rich country, on a per-capita basis, and its population tends to be clustered along the border.
Is Canada Having a Housing Bubble? And is It Popping?
Megan McArdle
January 15, 2013
Behold the rate of per-capita cost growth in the OECD from 2004-2010.
Do We Have a Spending Problem, or a Health Care Problem?
Megan McArdle
January 7, 2013
The data reflect deaths by suicide for 2007, ranked by per-capita rate.
The Most Suicidal States
The Daily Beast
October 1, 2010

British Dictionary definitions for per capita

per capita

adjective, adverb

of or for each person

Word Origin for per capita

Latin, literally: according to heads

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for per capita

Latin, literally "by the head," from per (see per) + capita "head" (see capital).

per capita in Culture

per capita

[(puhr kap-i-tuh)]

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.