per capita

[ per kap-i-tuh ]
See synonyms for per capita on Thesaurus.com
adjective, adverb
  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.

Origin of per capita

1
1675–85; <Latin: literally, by heads

Words that may be confused with per capita

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Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use per capita in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for per capita

per capita

/ (pə ˈkæpɪtə) /


adjective, adverb
  1. of or for each person

Origin of per capita

1
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

Cultural definitions for per capita

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.

The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.