Countries with younger populations consume less oil per person
Comparing Population aged 14 years or younger (thousands), per unit of GDP with Oil consumption, per capita across 200 countries, 2024–2025.
- Rank correlation
- -0.88
- Holding size constant
- -0.83
- Countries compared
- 200
- Period
- 2024–2025
What might link these
Younger populations may drive less, rely on public transport, or have lower industrial energy demand. However, other factors like climate, urbanization, or energy policies could also explain this link.
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 does not imply causation; unmeasured confounders like technology adoption or cultural norms may drive both trends.
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.