Despite all the information on the net regarding this topic, my firm belief is that in the following sentence, the singular verb “is” is the correct grammatical choice, as odd as the singular verb may sound. One in 1 million people is victimized. Here’s why. If we flip the sentence, we easily ascertain that the singular verb is, in fact, correct: Out of 1 million people, one is victimized. We certainly would not say: Out of 1 million people, one are victimized. Another example: One in 500 children gets the disease. Flip the sentence: Out of 500 children, one gets the disease. (NOT: ... one get the disease.) Notional agreement may sound better in many instances, but one is as singular as it gets and is the correct grammatical choice in all similar constructions. Does anybody agree that, technically, my singular verb choices are 100% correct in the two examples above (and for the rationale I provided)? Thank you, and happy holidays!
It's absolutely the singular is. The subject of the sentence is one. It's singular. It's extremely common for the plurality of the subsequent prepositional phrase to override the sense of correct verb agreement in typical idiomatic speech, but this commonality doesn't make it any less a verb agreement error. ETA: Of course, standard caveat, if the occurrence in question is a bit of dialogue then an argument can be made for going with the idiomatic error, but assuming this is not the case, then is.
