Higher male population per GDP links to lower foreign reserves per person
Comparing Population - Est. & Proj. — Total Population - Male, per unit of GDP with Reserves excluding gold, foreign exchange (SDR), per capita across 152 countries, 2022–2025.
- Rank correlation
- -0.70
- Holding size constant
- -0.57
- Countries compared
- 152
- Period
- 2022–2025
What might link these
Countries with more males relative to economic output may hold fewer reserves, possibly due to differing fiscal priorities or economic structures. A careful reader should note that correlation does not imply causation, and unmeasured factors like institutional quality or trade policies 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. The partial correlation remains strong but does not rule out confounding by unmeasured economic or policy variables.
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.