More phones linked to lower agriculture's share of GDP
Comparing Fixed telephone subscriptions (per 100 people) with Value Added (Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing) — Share of GDP Standard Local Currency, 2015 prices across 179 countries, 2024–2024.
- Rank correlation
- -0.73
- Holding size constant
- -0.61
- Countries compared
- 179
- Period
- 2024–2024
What might link these
Wealthier countries may invest more in fixed-line infrastructure while shifting economic activity away from agriculture. A careful reader should note that correlation does not imply causation—other factors like urbanization or industrial policy could drive both trends.
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 confounders like education levels or technological adoption rates.
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.