Is it "less people" or "fewer people"?

Contexti

This one comes up in news headlines, press releases, and demographic writing — places where an editor's eye is sharp. In conversational English, less people has been normalising for decades, but in edited prose fewer people is still the expected form.

A little moreii

You can count people one by one: one person, two people, three people. Anything you can number takes fewer. "Less people" is common in speech, but careful editors will always catch it.

Examplesiii

Watch foriv

The full entryv

More quick answersvi

• → When do I use "fewer"? Use fewer for things you can count: fewer chairs, fewer errors, fewer hours logged.
• → When do I use "less"? Use less for amounts you measure rather than count: less water, less noise, less patience.
• → Is it "10 items or less" or "10 items or fewer"? Grammatically, "10 items or fewer." Items are countable, so they take fewer.
• → Is it "less calories" or "fewer calories"? "Fewer calories." A calorie is a unit you can count, so the right word is fewer.
• → Is it "under 10 people" or "fewer than 10 people"? "Fewer than 10 people" is the precise form — people are countable, so fewer fits.