Per capita facts for kids
Per capita is a Latin phrase that means "by heads" or "for each head." In everyday language, it simply means "per person." This term is used a lot in different studies, like when governments collect information, or when people study money and how cities are built.
It's a common way to say "per person" in the field of statistics, which is all about collecting and understanding numbers.
Per capita is also used in legal documents like wills. A will is a paper that says how a person's money and things should be shared after they pass away. If a will says to divide things per capita, it means each person named in the will gets an equal share. This is different from per stirpes, where money is divided by family branches, and each branch gets an equal share.
What Does Per Capita Mean?
The phrase per capita helps us understand how much of something there is for each person in a group. It's like sharing a pizza: if there are 8 slices and 4 people, each person gets 2 slices. That's 2 slices per capita.
Using Per Capita in Daily Life
You might hear per capita when people talk about:
- Income: This is how much money, on average, each person in a country or city earns in a year. For example, "The average income per capita in this town is $30,000." This helps us compare how wealthy different places are.
- Consumption: This shows how much of a certain product or service each person uses. For instance, "Water use per capita has decreased this year," means people are using less water individually.
- Resources: This can be about how many cars, computers, or even doctors there are for each person in a certain area. "There are 0.5 doctors per capita in this region" means there's one doctor for every two people.
Using per capita helps us compare different groups or places fairly, no matter how big or small they are. It gives us a "per person" view, which is often more useful than just looking at total numbers.
See also
In Spanish: Per cápita para niños
