How many televisions sets are there in the United States per capita?
Or, how many TV set does the average person own?

hrucker,

Most wives and girlfriends might say "Too many!", but according to the
latest available government data for the United States:

- there is slightly less than one television per person 
- there are slightly more than two televisions per household

Government sources, data, and precise calculations are shown below.

Thanks for your question,
huntsman

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Sources & Data -

CIA World FactBook 2001
United States
http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/us.html
Population: 278,058,881 (July 2001 est.)
Televisions: 219 million (1997)

Statistical Abstract of the United States
U.S. Census Bureau
http://www.census.gov/statab/www/part1.html
HOUSEHOLDS ---------- 1990 ----- 1995 ----- 1999 ------ 2000 -----
2001
Households (mil.) --- 93.3 ----- 99.0 ----- 103.9 ----- 104.7 ----
(NA)

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Calculations -

Dividing televisions by the population, we get:
219,000,000 / 278,058,881 = 0.78760296816414 televisions per capita

Dividing televisions by households, we get:
219,000,000 / 104,000,000 = 2.1057692307692 televisions per household

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Search Strategy -

I didn't really search: I recalled these sources from previous work,
and from a trip to my helpful local library many years ago. Most local
libraries usually have printed versions of this data, but fortunately
some of it is now available online.

I'm bummed I didn't get to this one, 'cause I knew the source of the
info right away from other work I do.  The World Bank tracks this sort
of info for every conutry on the planet.  Their World Development
Report for 2001 sites a figure of 847 TVs per 1,000 people in the U.S.
-- a bit higher than the 787 TVs per 1,000 implied by Huntsman's data
(good job, Huntsman!).

The report can be found at:

http://www.worldbank.org/poverty/wdrpoverty/report/tab19.pdf