per capita

1. 1.

   per person

   “among the states Connecticut has a high per capita income”

   Similarproportionate

1. 1.

   per person; for each person; of each person

   “we are spending $5,000 per capita annually for education in this district”

Questions about per capita

What does per capita mean?

per capita means "per person". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

Is per capita a common word?

per capita is banded "Familiar" — widely understood, used when the subject calls for it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.