Age dependency ratio correlates with service exports
Comparing Service exports (BoP, current US$) with Age dependency ratio, old (% of working-age population) across 185 countries, 2025–2025.
- Rank correlation
- +0.62
- Holding size constant
- +0.68
- Countries compared
- 185
- Period
- 2025–2025
What might link these
The link between age dependency ratio and service exports might be due to older populations having different consumption patterns, potentially driving demand for services. A careful reader should consider education level as a likely confounder, as it can influence both the age structure of the workforce and the types of exports a country specializes in. The relationship could be driven by various underlying factors.
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 suggesting a direct relationship between aging populations and service export capabilities, when in fact other factors like economic development stage or technological advancement might be at play.
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.