Countries with higher paper exports tend to have more fixed telephone subscriptions
Comparing Fixed telephone subscriptions with Paper and paperboard — Export value across 176 countries, 2024–2024.
- Rank correlation
- +0.77
- Holding size constant
- +0.54
- Countries compared
- 176
- Period
- 2024–2024
What might link these
Both indicators may reflect broader economic development or infrastructure quality, but the relationship could also stem from historical industrialization patterns. A careful reader should note that correlation does not imply causation.
Why this is not proof of anything
This is a correlation across countries, not an experiment. It cannot show that either indicator causes the other, and both may simply follow a third thing. The partial correlation remains strong, but unmeasured factors like digital adoption rates or trade policies could inflate the apparent link.
The second figure above repeats the measurement with national population and income held constant. It is the more conservative number: a relationship that largely disappears there was mostly telling you that larger, richer countries have more of most things.
How this was measured
Both indicators were ranked across every country reporting each, and the two rankings compared — ranks rather than raw values, because a handful of very large countries can otherwise manufacture a relationship on their own. The calculation is arithmetic over figures already published on this site; the commentary above is drafted from the two indicator names and the resulting coefficients.