Dictionary of Finance and Investment Terms: per capita debt
per capita debt
total bonded debt of a municipality, divided by its population. A more refined version, called net per capita debt, divides the total bonded debt less applicable sinking funds by the total population. The result of either ratio, compared with ratios of prior periods, reveals trends in a municipality's debt burden, which bond analysts evaluate, bearing in mind that, historically, defaults in times of recession have generally followed overexpansion of debts in prior booms.
