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A line chart with the title "International Tourist Arrivals (millions)". On the y-axis, a range from 0 at the bottom to 100 at the top in increments of 10. Across the x-axis, years from 1995 to 2010 in 5 year increments. In the legend, Brazil, Egypt, Malaysia, France, and USA are listed. USA is consistently above 70. France increases sharply from 30 tying with USA near 85 at year 2010. Malaysia increases nearly linearly from 20 to about 45. Brazil and Egypt run closely together, also linearly, from both about 9 to Egypt at 15, and Malaysia at 13

By looking at the graph above, should numbers or number be used in this context?

Overall, the numbers of international tourists arrived in these five countries had increased over the period

Overall, the number of international tourists arrived in these five countries had increased over the period

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  • Number of tourists - remove arrived or change to arriving or change arrived in to visiting
    – mplungjan
    Mar 25, 2014 at 13:32
  • I think you need to give at least a complete sentence here. Number / numbers are sometimes interchangeable, as a collective (January sees record-setting number of tourists / Tunisia expects new political stability to attract record numbers of tourists this year : internet) and then it's a matter of style rather than correctness. I'd use 'arriving' rather than 'arrived' too.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Mar 25, 2014 at 13:34
  • Thank you. Could you please explain the grammar - using arriving instead of arrived.
    – bodhisattva
    Mar 25, 2014 at 13:42
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    "The number of tourists from these five countries have increased" (the total number when you add up all five countries). "The numbers of tourists from these five countries have increased" (the number of tourists from each country has increased, not just the total). In the second case, it's better to say "The number of tourists from each of these five countries has increased". In the first case "The total number of tourists from these five countries has increased".
    – user3065
    Mar 25, 2014 at 13:58
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    Skeptic: 'Being safe in your exam' and 'being correct' often mean different things, sadly. I'd choose 'numbers' here to reflect the number arriving in country A, the number arriving in country B ... (so I don't say here "I'd choose 'numbers' here to reflect the numbers arriving in country A, the numbers arriving in country B ...", though I wouldn't even mark this wrong). But I'm not marking your exam. Traditionally, 'the number' was favoured, I believe, and you've probably got traditionalist exam moderators. This is the forum (hopefully) for correct English, not exam advice.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Mar 25, 2014 at 14:06

1 Answer 1

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You can use "number of" if you follow it with "is/was". Likewise, "numbers of" is acceptable if coupled with "are/were". The first way of phrasing is statistically more common as shown by this Google Ngram, showing written occurrences since 1800:

https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=numbers+of%2C+number+of&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Cnumbers%20of%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Cnumber%20of%3B%2Cc0

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  • Thank you. I wanted to vote up but I couldn't, anyway this is useful
    – bodhisattva
    Mar 26, 2014 at 11:16
  • No problem. You can check mark it as correct if you find it a satisfactory answer, though.
    – teepee
    Mar 26, 2014 at 13:37

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