The Boltzmann distribution is often used to describe the distribution of particles, such as atoms or molecules, over bound states accessible to them. If we have a system consisting of many particles, the probability of a particle being in state i is practically the probability that, if we pick a random particle from that system and check what state it is in, we will find it is in state i. This probability is equal to the number of particles in state i divided by the total number of particles in the system, that is the fraction of particles that occupy state i.