Services' share of GDP weakly linked to income per capita.
Comparing GDP per capita (constant 2015 US$) with Services, value added (current LCU), per unit of GDP across 201 countries, 2015–2025.
- Rank correlation
- -0.57
- Holding size constant
- -0.42
- Countries compared
- 201
- Period
- 2015–2025
What might link these
The data suggests that countries with a larger share of services in their GDP tend to have lower GDP per capita, even after accounting for population and overall GDP. This could reflect a pattern where developing economies rely more on agriculture and manufacturing for initial growth, with services becoming more prominent at higher income levels. However, this is a complex relationship and other factors like technological development and education levels likely play a significant role.
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 reducing the services sector would increase GDP per capita, as the relationship is likely influenced by many other development-related factors.
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.