Manufacturing value added inversely relates to consumption expenditure
Comparing Manufacturing, value added (constant LCU), per unit of GDP with Final consumption expenditure (current US$), per capita across 164 countries, 2011–2025.
- Rank correlation
- -0.56
- Holding size constant
- -0.44
- Countries compared
- 164
- Period
- 2011–2025
What might link these
A possible link between these indicators could be that countries with higher manufacturing value added might have a different economic structure, prioritizing production over consumption. However, a careful reader should be cautious about potential confounders like education level or technological advancement. Education level could be a likely confounder, as it might influence both manufacturing efficiency and consumption patterns.
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 could mislead because it might not account for other factors like cultural or institutional differences that affect consumption and production patterns.
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.