Energy use linked to government spending
Comparing Primary energy use, per capita with General government final consumption expenditure (constant 2015 US$), per capita across 162 countries, 2024–2025.
- Rank correlation
- +0.90
- Holding size constant
- +0.84
- Countries compared
- 162
- Period
- 2024–2025
What might link these
The relationship between primary energy use and government final consumption expenditure may be driven by factors such as economic development, where countries with higher government spending also tend to have higher energy consumption. A careful reader should be cautious about potential confounders like urbanization, which could influence both indicators. Additionally, the relationship might be partly due to the fact that wealthier countries, which tend to have higher government spending, also consume more energy.
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. This correlation could mislead by implying a direct relationship between government spending and energy use, when in fact both may be driven by underlying factors like economic development.
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.