{"id":3793,"date":"2023-08-18T21:32:14","date_gmt":"2023-08-19T01:32:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/the-unsurprising-confusion-about-per-capita\/"},"modified":"2023-08-18T21:32:14","modified_gmt":"2023-08-19T01:32:14","slug":"the-unsurprising-confusion-about-per-capita","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/the-unsurprising-confusion-about-per-capita\/","title":{"rendered":"The unsurprising confusion about \u2018per capita\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Profit<\/a>
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A car cut me off on the highway the other day. The car was going nearly 100 mph.<\/p>\n

Was the car a new Porsche 911 GT3 or a used Toyota Camry?<\/p>\n

The thing is, there are more than 1,000 times as many Camrys on the road. But our instinct is to pick the vivid and distinctive answer.<\/p>\n

The per capita crime rate in rural areas is often dramatically (sometimes five or ten times) higher than it is in most cities.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, Alaska has far more millionaires per capita than most people would guess. That\u2019s because we underestimate the population, not because there\u2019s a particularly large number of millionaires.<\/p>\n

More people might lead to more instances, but what matters isn\u2019t the absolute number, it\u2019s the percentage. New York is an incredibly safe place to live.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re simply not naturally attuned to dividing what we notice by the chances we\u2019ll see it\u2026 stories resonate without regard for the denominator.<\/p>\n

Flying across the country is dramatically safer than driving there, but intuitively, it feels like the opposite must be true. And peer-reviewed medicine is far more likely to cure an illness than an anecdote will.<\/p>\n

The average TikTok or Facebook post is seen by just a few people, even though it feels like the ones we\u2019re seeing are seen by a lot of people.<\/p>\n

Reality is lumpy, and taking a moment to think about the source of our story helps us get clear about what\u2019s actually happening.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\tAugust 18, 2023<\/span>\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n