Higher service exports may relate to lower female primary enrolment per GDP unit.
Comparing Service exports (BoP, current US$) with Enrolment in primary education, female (number), per unit of GDP across 177 countries, 2016–2025.
- Rank correlation
- -0.66
- Holding size constant
- -0.83
- Countries compared
- 177
- Period
- 2016–2025
What might link these
This negative correlation suggests that as a country's service exports grow, the efficiency of its primary education system (measured by enrolment per unit of GDP) may decrease. This could be due to a shift in economic focus away from social services towards export-oriented sectors, or it might reflect that wealthier nations, which tend to have higher service exports, also have higher education spending, thus a lower enrolment *per unit* of GDP.
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 correlation does not imply that service exports cause lower educational efficiency; a country's overall development level is a likely confounder.
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.