''Per capita'' is a
Latin
Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...
phrase literally meaning "by heads" or "for each head", and idiomatically used to mean "per person".
Social statistics
The term is used in a wide variety of
social sciences
Social science (often rendered in the plural as the social sciences) is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of society, societies and the Social relation, relationships among members within those societies. The term was former ...
and statistical research contexts, including government statistics,
economic indicator
An economic indicator is a statistic about an Economics, economic activity. Economic indicators allow analysis of economic performance and predictions of future performance. One application of economic indicators is the study of business cycles. ...
s, and
built environment
The term built environment refers to human-made conditions and is often used in architecture, landscape architecture, urban planning, public health, sociology, and anthropology, among others. These curated spaces provide the setting for human ac ...
studies.
It is commonly used in the
field of
statistics
Statistics (from German language, German: ', "description of a State (polity), state, a country") is the discipline that concerns the collection, organization, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of data. In applying statistics to a s ...
in place of saying "per person"
(although ''per caput'' is the Latin for "per head"
).
It is also used in
wills to indicate that each of the named
beneficiaries should receive, by devise or
bequest, equal shares of the estate.
This is in contrast to a ''
per stirpes
''Per stirpes'' (; "by roots" or "by stock") is a legal term from Latin language , Latin, used in the law of inheritance and Estate (law), estates. An estate of a is distributed ''per stirpes'' if each ''branch'' of the family is to receive an eq ...
'' division, in which each branch (Latin: ''
stirps
In ancient Rome, a gens ( or , ; : gentes ) was a family consisting of individuals who shared the same ''nomen gentilicium'' and who claimed descent from a common ancestor. A branch of a gens, sometimes identified by a distinct cognomen, was cal ...
'', : ''stirpes'') of the
inheriting family inherits an equal share of the
estate. This is often used with the '2-0 rule', a statistical principle that determines which group is larger ''per capita''. Under the 2-0 rule, a group is the largest ''per capita'' if it has both the biggest total size and size of the group of the objects in question, therefore resulting in a 2-0 score.
See also
*
List of countries by GDP (nominal) per capita
This is a list of countries by nominal GDP per capita. GDP per capita is the total value of a country's finished goods and services (gross domestic product) divided by its total population (per capita).
Gross domestic product (GDP) per capita is ...
*
List of countries by GNI (nominal) per capita
This is a list of countries by gross national income per capita in 2023 at nominal values, according to the Atlas method, an indicator of income developed by the World Bank. The GNI per capita is the dollar value of a country's final income in ...
References
{{Reflist
Latin words and phrases
Social statistics