More mobile subscriptions are linked to higher merchandise imports
Comparing Merchandise imports (current US$) with Mobile cellular subscriptions, gaps filled across 199 countries, 2025–2025.
- Rank correlation
- +0.75
- Holding size constant
- +0.50
- Countries compared
- 199
- Period
- 2025–2025
What might link these
Wealthier or more globally integrated countries may both import more goods and have higher mobile adoption. A careful reader should note that correlation does not imply causation—other factors like trade policies or economic structure could drive both.
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 partial correlation remains strong but could still be influenced by unmeasured confounders like digital infrastructure or openness to trade.
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.