More democratic countries tend to import more commercial services per person.
Comparing Liberal Democracy Index with Commercial service imports (current US$), per capita across 158 countries, 2025–2025.
- Rank correlation
- +0.60
- Holding size constant
- +0.42
- Countries compared
- 158
- Period
- 2025–2025
What might link these
Democracies may have stronger legal protections and demand for specialized services, while wealthier nations (often democratic) also import more services. A careful reader should note that correlation doesn’t imply causation—other factors like trade policies or institutional quality could drive both.
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 economic development rather than democracy itself.
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.