Countries with more pigs tend to export more roundwood.
Comparing Roundwood — Export quantity with Swine / pigs — Stocks across 147 countries, 2023–2024.
- Rank correlation
- +0.57
- Holding size constant
- +0.47
- Countries compared
- 147
- Period
- 2023–2024
What might link these
Wood may be used in pig farming infrastructure (e.g., barns, fencing), or both industries could thrive in rural economies with abundant forest resources. A careful reader should note that correlation does not imply causation, and other factors like agricultural policies or timber demand might 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 relationship could be driven by unmeasured factors like rural economic structure or climate suitability for both timber and pig farming.
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.