SNP and SNV - (Feb/04/2012 )

Question: For a particular gene, which would a population contain more different alleles of, SNPs or SNVs? Why?

Hi there,
I thought that SNP is a single nucleotide polymorphism - which happens among a population, whereas SNV is a single nucleotide variation among an individual. So SNP should contain more alleles... Can someone please verify the answer and if it's wrong, explain why?
Thank you!

Any polymorphism is one that is established in the population as a whole - this means that a specific proportion of the population will have the "mutant" allele. Variants can occur at any point in any individual - but you won't (well, shouldn't) find them commonly in the population. As a whole, theoretically there could be the same number of alleles of each in the population, but you will find a specific SNP at a defined rate.