Higher political rights ratings associate with lower shares of elderly women
Comparing Political Rights Rating with Population ages 65 and above, female, per capita across 193 countries, 2025–2025.
- Rank correlation
- -0.57
- Holding size constant
- -0.49
- Countries compared
- 193
- Period
- 2025–2025
What might link these
Wealthier, more democratic countries may have lower fertility rates and higher life expectancy, reducing the proportion of elderly women. A careful reader should avoid assuming causation, as unmeasured factors like healthcare quality or migration patterns could drive both variables.
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. Correlation alone cannot prove that improving political rights would reduce the elderly female population share.
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.