Is the phrase "a high number of" considered correct? Or is it only correct to say "a large number of"?
Example:
Japan has a high number of active volcanoes.
Learn English – Grammaticality of “a high number of”
adjectivescollocationgrammaticalitynouns
Related Solutions
Actually the most common phrasing I've personally seen is:
It is high in calories.
The number of calories can be thought of as either a number (number of) or aggregate (amount of). Other answers/comments have indicated that there's debate over which is more common/appropriate, but what one you use influences which adjective you pick.
Per this NGram:
large number of --> Most Common
large amount of --> Common
high number of --> Uncommon
high amount of --> Almost Unheard Of
High is indeed the collocation of choice here. Big or large don't sound idiomatic. Both the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) and the British National Corpus (BNC) confirm this.
COCA BNC
high aspirations 40 3
great aspirations 7 0
big aspirations 4 0
large aspirations 0 0
The opposite, in fact, is low aspirations.
For the sake of completeness, here are the top 50 collocations from both corpora:
COCA BNC
1 POLITICAL ASPIRATIONS 124 POLITICAL ASPIRATIONS 21
2 EDUCATIONAL ASPIRATIONS 120 SOCIAL ASPIRATIONS 12
3 OCCUPATIONAL ASPIRATIONS 95 NATIONAL ASPIRATIONS 9
4 NATIONAL ASPIRATIONS 59 NATIONALIST ASPIRATIONS 7
5 HIGH ASPIRATIONS 40 LEGITIMATE ASPIRATIONS 5
6 DEMOCRATIC ASPIRATIONS 39 PERSONAL ASPIRATIONS 5
7 PRESIDENTIAL ASPIRATIONS 38 SEPARATIST ASPIRATIONS 5
8 HIGHER ASPIRATIONS 31 COMMON ASPIRATIONS 4
9 NATIONALIST ASPIRATIONS 28 HUMAN ASPIRATIONS 4
10 HUMAN ASPIRATIONS 26 HIGHER ASPIRATIONS 4
11 PROFESSIONAL ASPIRATIONS 26 PROFESSIONAL ASPIRATIONS 4
12 HIGHEST ASPIRATIONS 25 MIDDLE-CLASS ASPIRATIONS 3
13 PARENTAL ASPIRATIONS 22 INDIVIDUAL ASPIRATIONS 3
14 ACADEMIC ASPIRATIONS 21 HIGH ASPIRATIONS 3
15 FUTURE ASPIRATIONS 20 FUTURE ASPIRATIONS 3
16 PALESTINIAN ASPIRATIONS 19 CHANGING ASPIRATIONS 3
17 LEGITIMATE ASPIRATIONS 17 COMMERCIAL ASPIRATIONS 3
18 PERSONAL ASPIRATIONS 17 REVOLUTIONARY ASPIRATIONS 3
19 SOCIAL ASPIRATIONS 17 SPIRITUAL ASPIRATIONS 3
20 LOFTY ASPIRATIONS 15 VAGUE ASPIRATIONS 3
21 NUCLEAR ASPIRATIONS 14 ARTISTIC ASPIRATIONS 2
22 SIMILAR ASPIRATIONS 14 CONTEMPORARY ASPIRATIONS 2
23 ECONOMIC ASPIRATIONS 12 DEMOCRATIC ASPIRATIONS 2
24 LITERARY ASPIRATIONS 12 DANGEROUS ASPIRATIONS 2
25 SPIRITUAL ASPIRATIONS 11 EDUCATIONAL ASPIRATIONS 2
26 VOCATIONAL ASPIRATIONS 11 ECONOMIC ASPIRATIONS 2
27 CULTURAL ASPIRATIONS 10 FRENCH ASPIRATIONS 2
28 POPULAR ASPIRATIONS 10 HIGHEST ASPIRATIONS 2
29 IMPERIAL ASPIRATIONS 9 CREATIVE ASPIRATIONS 2
30 INTELLECTUAL ASPIRATIONS 9 IMPERIAL ASPIRATIONS 2
31 NEW ASPIRATIONS 9 JUST ASPIRATIONS 2
32 REGIONAL ASPIRATIONS 9 LOFTY ASPIRATIONS 2
33 UNIVERSAL ASPIRATIONS 9 LOCAL ASPIRATIONS 2
34 DIFFERENT ASPIRATIONS 8 MASS ASPIRATIONS 2
35 LOW ASPIRATIONS 8 MUSICAL ASPIRATIONS 2
36 GLOBAL ASPIRATIONS 7 MORAL ASPIRATIONS 2
37 GREAT ASPIRATIONS 7 GENERAL ASPIRATIONS 2
38 LOWER ASPIRATIONS 7 NEW ASPIRATIONS 2
39 MORAL ASPIRATIONS 7 POPULAR ASPIRATIONS 2
40 RELIGIOUS ASPIRATIONS 7 REAL ASPIRATIONS 2
41 UTOPIAN ASPIRATIONS 7 THWARTED ASPIRATIONS 2
42 DEEPEST ASPIRATIONS 6 UNIVERSAL ASPIRATIONS 2
43 COMMON ASPIRATIONS 6 NEO-STALINIST ASPIRATIONS 1
44 ARTISTIC ASPIRATIONS 6 NATURAL ASPIRATIONS 1
45 BLACK ASPIRATIONS 6 PAN-TURKISH ASPIRATIONS 1
46 GROWING ASPIRATIONS 6 PALESTINIAN ASPIRATIONS 1
47 INDIVIDUAL ASPIRATIONS 6 OVERALL ASPIRATIONS 1
48 MIDDLE-CLASS ASPIRATIONS 6 OVER-AMBITIOUS ASPIRATIONS 1
49 MUSICAL ASPIRATIONS 6 OTHER ASPIRATIONS 1
50 OTHER ASPIRATIONS [sic!] 6 ORIGINAL ASPIRATIONS 1
As you can see, most of these have to deal with kind rather than size. The ones that are of interest to you are, in this order, high, higher, highest, lofty, low, great, lower, deepest, growing for COCA, and higher, high, highest, lofty for BNC. So the verdict is pretty clear.
Best Answer
I consider it awkward in the context of "Japan has a high number of active volcanoes", but it's frequently used that way in biomedical articles. Saying "a large number of" or "many", in this case, is much better style, IMHO, but it's not ungrammatical.
Style is rarely judged as "correct" or "incorrect", except in contests for which a certain style has been prescribed and others have been proscribed. Writing style is usually judged on a sliding scale that runs from Godawful! (-100) to Sublime! (+100), depending upon one's taste. OTOH, style manuals may deal with this kind of structure: that's case by case.
I always change "a high number" to something more appropriate when the quantity or amount is what's important rather than the size of the number: Sometimes a great number?.