Higher per‑capita consumption is associated with a larger share of women aged 70‑74 in a country’s population
Comparing Population ages 70-74, female, per capita with Final consumption expenditure (constant 2015 US$), per capita across 169 countries, 2025–2025.
- Rank correlation
- +0.68
- Holding size constant
- +0.58
- Countries compared
- 169
- Period
- 2025–2025
What might link these
Wealthier societies can afford better health care and pensions, allowing more women to survive into their early seventies. At the same time, affluent populations tend to spend more on goods and services, raising per‑capita consumption. A careful reader should note that other aspects of development—such as education, social security coverage, or urbanisation—might drive both patterns.
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 observed link may largely reflect a broader socioeconomic development factor that was not fully captured by the population and GDP controls.
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.