Wealthier nations tend to have better political rights
Comparing Political Rights Rating with GNI (current US$), per capita across 189 countries, 2025–2025.
- Rank correlation
- -0.58
- Holding size constant
- -0.47
- Countries compared
- 189
- Period
- 2025–2025
What might link these
The relationship between GNI per capita and political rights rating might be linked through factors like education and institutional stability. A careful reader should consider that a likely confounder could be the level of economic inequality within a country. This could influence both the political rights and the overall wealth distribution.
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 causal link between wealth and political rights, when in fact other factors like historical context, cultural norms, and geopolitical influences may play a significant role.
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.