Per-capita consumption — Science definition
The average amount of a resource used by one person; total demand depends on population size and per-capita consumption together.
Where it is taught
- Human Impact & Stewardship — Resources & Human Decisions, Earth & Space Science, Grade 9
In use
How much strain humanity puts on the Earth comes down to two numbers multiplied together: how many people there are (population) and how much each person uses on average (per-capita consumption).
Human Impact & Stewardship
Questions using per-capita consumption
Problem 1
Explain, using the idea of per-capita consumption, why a small increase in population combined with a big increase in per-person resource use can strain Earth's systems even more than a huge population increase with no change in per-person use.
Answer and explanation
Because total demand is population multiplied by per-capita use, a big jump in per-capita consumption multiplies across the whole population, so even a modest population increase combined with people each using much more can produce a bigger total increase in demand than population alone growing a lot while individual use stays the same.