Lower young female child populations correlate with more working-age adults.
Comparing Population ages 15-64, total, per capita with Population ages 00-04, female, per capita across 213 countries, 2025–2025.
- Rank correlation
- -0.59
- Holding size constant
- -0.52
- Countries compared
- 213
- Period
- 2025–2025
What might link these
A declining birth rate, reflected in fewer very young females, can lead to a higher proportion of the population being of working age. However, this relationship is complex and can be influenced by factors like emigration and mortality rates.
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 does not imply that a lower birth rate causes an increase in the working-age population; both could be driven by other demographic trends.
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.