Higher GDP per capita strongly correlates with better health system scores across 190 countries.
Comparing Health system composite index with GDP (constant 2015 US$), per capita across 190 countries, 2024–2025.
- Rank correlation
- +0.82
- Holding size constant
- +0.75
- Countries compared
- 190
- Period
- 2024–2025
What might link these
Wealthier nations likely invest more in health infrastructure, but correlation isn’t causation. A careful reader should note that other factors (e.g., governance quality) might drive both indicators.
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 may reflect broader development patterns rather than a direct health-GDP 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.