Countries with more farmland tend to have larger sheep herds.
Comparing Agriculture — Area with Sheep — Stocks across 159 countries, 2023–2024.
- Rank correlation
- +0.77
- Holding size constant
- +0.54
- Countries compared
- 159
- Period
- 2023–2024
What might link these
Agricultural land likely supports livestock like sheep, and climate/soil suitability may jointly influence both. However, GDP and population controls reduced but didn't eliminate the link, suggesting other confounders like dietary preferences or export-oriented farming remain.
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 doesn't prove sheep are raised on that specific farmland.
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.