Countries with more young girls per capita tend to have lower economic output per person.
Comparing Population ages 0-14, female, per capita with Gross value added at basic prices (GVA) (current US$), per capita across 200 countries, 2025–2025.
- Rank correlation
- -0.85
- Holding size constant
- -0.78
- Countries compared
- 200
- Period
- 2025–2025
What might link these
A high share of young dependents may strain resources, limiting economic productivity, while low-GVA countries might lack investment in education or healthcare for children. However, reverse causation is possible: poorer economies may have higher fertility rates.
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 relationship could be driven by unmeasured factors like education levels or institutional quality.
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.