Per mille
Per mille, (from Latin per mīlle, "in each thousand"),[1] is an expression that means parts per thousand.[2] Other recognised spellings include per mil,[2] per mill,[1][3] permil,[1] permill,[1] or permille[4]
‰ | |
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Per mille | |
In Unicode | U+2030 ‰ PER MILLE (HTML ‰ · ‰ ) |
Related | |
See also | U+0025 % PERCENT SIGN U+2031 ‱ PER TEN THOUSAND SIGN (Basis point) |
The associated sign is written ‰, which looks like a percent sign % with an extra zero in the divisor.
The term occurs so rarely in English that major dictionaries do not agree on the spelling[1][2][3] and some major dictionaries such as Macmillan[5] and Longman[6] do not even contain an entry. The term is more common in other European languages where it is used to express percentages smaller than 1%. One common usage is blood alcohol content, that is usually expressed as a percentage in English-speaking countries.
Per mil should not be confused with parts per million (ppm).
Computer systems
The code point for the glyph is included in the General Punctuation block of Unicode characters: U+2030 ‰ PER MILLE SIGN.[4] It may be typed using Alt+0137, Compose%o, or Ctrl+⇧ Shift+u 2030, according to operating system.
Examples
Examples of use include:
- Legal limits of blood-alcohol content for driving a road vehicle in some countries: for example: 0.6‰ or 0.2‰.
- Seawater salinity: for example: "the average salinity is 35‰".
- Tunnel and railway gradients (in some countries in Europe)
- Birth and death rates
- Baseball batting averages (colloquially)
- Property taxation rates: the millage rate (U.S.) or mill rate (Canada)
- Expressing stable-isotope ratios - for example: "δ13C was measured at −3.5‰"
- Fineness of precious metals
In English, the phrase "per mille" may also be used in other contexts unrelated to percentage, such as
- Print and online advertisements, which are commonly sold at cost per mille (CPM); this is the common unit for all banner and display advertising
- By email service providers to denominate the cost for 1,000 emails delivered as a cost per mille (CPM)
Related units
- Percentage point difference of 1 part in 100
- Percentage (%) 1 part in 100
- Basis point (bp) difference of 1 part in 10,000
- Permyriad (‱) 1 part in 10,000
- Per cent mille (pcm) 1 part in 100,000
See also
- Parts-per notation
- Per-unit system
- Percent point function
- Fineness of precious metals (given as "0.000-fine")
References
- Oxford English Dictionary (3rd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2005.
per mil, adv
- "Cambridge Dictionary Online: Business English". Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Retrieved 8 June 2020.
per mille adverb (also per mil)
- "Oxford Dictionaries: The American Dictionary". Retrieved 1 Aug 2014.
per mill
- Unicode. "General Punctuation". 2014. Accessed 5 Aug 2014.
- "Macmillan Dictionary". Retrieved 1 Aug 2014.
No result
- "Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English". Retrieved 1 Aug 2014.
No result
External links
Media related to Per mille at Wikimedia Commons