WordGarden.iocapita
C1Pronunciation
UK
- /kˈæpɪtə/
US
- /ˈkæpɪtə/
Meanings
Noun
individual people counted as units, especially in per-person averages
headlike anatomical parts, as the plural of caput
Beyond the definition
Imagine you're dividing up a pizza among your friends. You wouldn't just think about the total number of slices; you'd think about how many slices there are per person. That's where "capita" comes in! It is the plural form of the Latin word for "head," and in English, it is almost always used in the phrase "per capita," which means "for each individual."
You often see it used in statistics—things like "income per capita" (how much money each person makes on average) or "deaths per capita" (how many deaths there are compared with the size of the population). It helps us understand data in a way that accounts for the size of a group. So, if you hear someone talking about something "per capita," they are thinking about how the big numbers break down for every single person involved. (And it’s not the same word as "capital.")
"Capita" is a Latin term meaning "heads," and it's used in English to express rates or amounts calculated for each person in a population. It isn't just about counting heads, though; it's a vital tool for standardizing data so you can compare different groups fairly, regardless of their size.
You'll most often encounter "per capita" in formal fields like statistics and economics. For example, "Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita" tells you the average economic output for each person in a country. This gives you a much clearer sense of a nation's standard of living than the total GDP alone, which might be high simply because the country has a massive population. Similarly, "carbon emissions per capita" helps compare environmental impact across different nations by accounting for how many people are actually living there.
Think about it like this: if one city has 10 murders and another has 100, simply saying "there were more murders in the second city" isn't very informative. If the first city has a population of only 1,000 and the second has 100,000, then the murder rate per capita is actually ten times higher in the first city (10 per 1,000 vs. 1 per 1,000). The "per capita" figure reveals that the first city is statistically more dangerous, even though its total number of crimes is lower.
While primarily used in formal contexts like research reports or news articles, understanding "capita" helps you interpret data and make informed comparisons about populations, economies, and various other metrics. It's a small word that unlocks a lot of meaning when it comes to understanding the bigger picture—one person at a time.
Examples
- 1
National income
The country’s income per capita has risen steadily over the last five years.
- Phraseper capita
for each person in a population
- 2
Healthcare spending
Japan spends more on healthcare per capita than many other countries.
- 3
Carbon emissions
Although the city is small, its carbon emissions per capita are surprisingly high.
See also
Similar
Shades of meaning
- headcount
- per person
Contrast
Used with (collocations)
- per capita
- per capita income
- per capita consumption
Word family
Explore
Forms and spellings
1 form open this card.
Main spelling
- capitanoun