Talk:Per capita
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Please see also discussion at Per capita income --''clearcontent'' a.k.a. '''Doktor Who''' 03:29, 27 June 2006 (UTC)
Plurality[edit]
per capita seems to mean 'by heads'. Why is the distribution across a plurality?
Pro capite, -NOT- per capita[edit]
I studied Latin at High School (5 years), and beside that, as I am currently living in Italy, I can ensure that per capita is a term that is never used. In Italy the proper Latin terms currently used are:
- Pro capite
- reddito pro capite
the latter means income for each head. --Clearcontent 00:02, 27 June 2006 (UTC)
- A quick look at the Oxford English Dictionary confirms that the English usage is definitely 'per capita'. This derives from the Latin 'per' - being the accusative case of 'for' and the Latin 'caput' meaning 'head'. Thus it literally means 'per head'. An important point to consider is that the form of Latin which the English term derives from is 17th century Latin and not Latin as the Romans spoke it. Moreover modern Italian is not directly derived from Vulgate Latin, which was the language spoken by inhabitants of the western Roman Empire. See Vulgate Latin "Vulgate Latin evolved into the Romance languages in about the ninth century and it was from these dialects that modern Italian evolved". See also Italian Language "Italian was first formalised in the first years of the 14th century through the works of Dante Alighieri, who mixed southern Italian (romance) languages, especially Sicilian, with his native Tuscan in his epic poems known collectively as the Commedia". Consequentially the terms 'per capita' and 'pro capit' have entered English and Italian respectively through different routes. There are a great many Latin derived terms which are used today in modern English and that are accepted as English words in their own right. Their forms in modern English are not always direct derivatives of Vulgate Latin.
- Morgan Leigh 05:47, 27 June 2006 (UTC) (Also posted to talk:Per capita income)
Dear Morgan, you must study Latin before talking about it. "Per Capita" is a nonsense in (modern and ancient) Latin language, since it means "per heads" while "per" cannot be used before plurals when used with the meaning of "for each". It is just a misspelled phrase. N.B.: "Pro capite" is not an Italian phrase, it is a Latin phrase used by italians, just like lots of other phrases.
- Anonymous 05:47, 15 May 2009 (UTC) (Also posted to talk:Per capita income) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.58.4.122 (talk)
- If you translate literally "per capita" it is "per people" that doesn't mean anything, the right translation of "per person" is "per capitam" with accusative singular that sounds bad. If you think about it in English it is "per diem" "per mensem" "per annum" not in plural from "per dies" "per menses" "per annos" and in italy we use "pro" so we have "per die" "per mense" "per anno". So the English form come from "per capitam" without "m".--Stigni (talk) 11:34, 3 June 2012 (UTC)
- The sing. acc. of caput is caput, not capitam. Capitam does not exist.
- Anonymous 05:47, 15 May 2009 (UTC) (Also posted to talk:Per capita income) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.58.4.122 (talk)
US per capita section[edit]
This section seems POV and non-encyclopedic to me. The points made about the rich skewing the value could be said of any averaged value, and the specific gripes about DC don't seem to be relevant. I would support deleting this section. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Mbarden (talk • contribs) 23:37, 2 May 2007 (UTC).
Shouldn't there be a reference to the 2-0 rule ? --Backinstadiums (talk) 12:27, 27 April 2022 (UTC)
Per Capita[edit]
Standard Definition and Formula: so we're all on the same page, "Per Capita": is a measure of how much wealth and assets each person has, per head, or per person, measured over or against the national wealth as the standard, or gross domestic product.
Etymology: Cap has two meanings. Head and Capital, so translates to "per person over capital city", in The Roman World.
Over means division in Algebra so a special emphasis on equality by finding the average or mean value.
Blagoja73 (talk) 11:33, 7 May 2024 (UTC)
- New sections go at the bottom. It's not clear what change you are proposing be made to the article here. Girth Summit (blether) 12:08, 7 May 2024 (UTC)
- I'm sorry. I will put new text at the bottom from now.
- That is per capita the way I always understood it.
- It is average wealth per person divided by national wealth.
- It might not make any changes to the page, and that is fine. Blagoja73 (talk) 12:13, 7 May 2024 (UTC)
- It just means an average value of something considering the number of people. It's probably most commonly used when talking about wealth, but it doesn't have to be - if I said that a country's annual CO2 emissions were 200 kg per capita, that would also make sense. Girth Summit (blether) 09:54, 8 May 2024 (UTC)