per capita
Học thuậtThân thiện
Definition
- Adverb:
- For each person; by or for each individual in a population. It describes a total amount divided equally among every member of a group.
- Adjective:
- Describing a figure, amount, or rate that is calculated per person. It modifies a noun to indicate the figure is an average for each individual.
Usage
- The term is used in economics, statistics, sociology, and general reporting to normalize data (like income, consumption, or spending) by population size. This allows for fair comparisons between groups of different sizes.
- It is often placed before the noun it describes (as an adjective) or after the monetary/figure phrase it modifies (as an adverb).
Examples
- Adverb:
- The government spends $1,200 per capita on healthcare.
- Energy consumption per capita has fallen in recent years.
- Adjective:
- The country's per capita income is rising steadily.
- They published a report on per capita chocolate consumption by nation.
Advanced Usage
- "On a per capita basis": This phrase is synonymous with the adverbial use and emphasizes the method of calculation.
- On a per capita basis, the small nation has the highest density of museums in the world.
Variants and Related Words
- Per capita is a Latin phrase adopted directly into English. There is no direct single-word variant.
- Per head: An informal synonym with the same meaning.
- The cost is about £50 per head.
Synonyms
- For each person
- Per head
- Per individual
Related Phrases
- Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita: A key economic indicator measuring the average economic output per person in a country.
- Per capita consumption: The average amount of a resource or product consumed by each person.
Adjective
- per person
- among the states Connecticut has a high per capita income
Adverb
- per person
- we are spending $5,000 per capita annually for education in this district