per capita

American  

[per kap-i-tuh] / pər ˈkæp ɪ tə /

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.

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per capita British  

/ pə ˈkæpɪtə /

adjective

1. of or for each person

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per capita Cultural  

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.

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Etymology

Origin of per capita

1675–85; < Latin: literally, by heads

Example Sentences

You don’t mention a salary, but let’s say you’re earning the median per capita income in Hoboken, which is around $109,000 annually.

From MarketWatch • May 29, 2026

The study concluded that total population size explained environmental changes more strongly than per capita consumption alone.

From Science Daily • May 27, 2026

So one way to measure whether people are doing better on average is to adjust economic growth by the number of people, using GDP per capita.

From BBC • May 14, 2026

The lowest-income counties have the highest per capita participation rates, according to a recent report from Stokes.

From Los Angeles Times • May 14, 2026

Icelanders read more books per capita than any other people on the globe, and—like the Russians—they almost all play chess.

From "Endgame" by Frank Brady