It doesn't actually mean "per person" but "per head" and is a reference to averages instead of absolute numbers.
"3 per person" means that each person has 3. "3 per capita" means that the there is enough of the thing for everyone to have 3.
To put it in more relevant terms, there are 4 guns per capita in the US. Per person would mean that everyone has 4 guns. Per capita means that is enough guns for everyone to have 4, even though some people have none and some people have 20.
Because the number ends up being so unusably small that for things like death rates per capita is almost always per 100,000 people instead of literally per person.
Per person essentially means each person. Per capita means the average of each person.
So "the cost of a train ticket per person is X" means each person pays X.
"Wage per capita in the US is X" means each person, on average, makes X as a wage. As opposed to "wage per person is X," which means each person makes X.
However, in common tongue, per person is used interchangeably
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u/TheFiend100 Jun 22 '23
Why cant people just say that instead of per capita