Lower child (0-4) male population per GDP linked to stronger rule of law.
Comparing Rule of Law Index with Population ages 00-04, male, per unit of GDP across 169 countries, 2025–2025.
- Rank correlation
- -0.67
- Holding size constant
- -0.53
- Countries compared
- 169
- Period
- 2025–2025
What might link these
Societies with robust rule of law might offer better conditions for child welfare, potentially leading to lower birth rates of young males relative to economic output. Alternatively, countries with higher child mortality or lower fertility rates due to socioeconomic factors might coincidentally exhibit stronger rule of law.
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 socioeconomic factors influencing both child demographics and the rule of law, such as public health investments or gender equality.
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.