Countries with more older women tend to have higher nitrous oxide emissions from waste.
Comparing Nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions from Waste (Mt CO2e) with Population ages 65 and above, female across 200 countries, 2025–2025.
- Rank correlation
- +0.95
- Holding size constant
- +0.61
- Countries compared
- 200
- Period
- 2025–2025
What might link these
Aging populations may correlate with waste management practices or dietary habits that increase N2O emissions. However, GDP and population likely mediate this link, as richer or larger countries may both have older populations and higher waste emissions.
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 high rank correlation (0.95) drops sharply after controls, suggesting confounding factors drive much of the apparent relationship.
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.