High merchandise imports per capita strongly linked to higher GDP per capita.
Comparing GDP per capita (current US$) with Merchandise imports (current US$), per capita across 201 countries, 2025–2025.
- Rank correlation
- +0.94
- Holding size constant
- +0.91
- Countries compared
- 201
- Period
- 2025–2025
What might link these
Countries with higher GDP per capita tend to import more goods per person, suggesting a robust relationship between economic development and international trade. The strong correlation even after accounting for population and GDP highlights this connection. However, this is a correlation, not causation, and other factors could be at play.
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 strong partial correlation does not prove that imports cause higher GDP, as many other economic and policy factors are likely involved.
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.