Imports linked to women's empowerment
Comparing Women's political empowerment index vs. electoral democracy index with Merchandise imports (current US$), per capita across 172 countries, 2025–2025.
- Rank correlation
- +0.61
- Holding size constant
- +0.46
- Countries compared
- 172
- Period
- 2025–2025
What might link these
A possible link between merchandise imports and women's political empowerment could be through economic development and globalization, which may foster cultural exchange and gender equality. However, a careful reader should be cautious about the potential influence of education, a likely confounder that could drive both economic participation and political empowerment. The relationship might also be influenced by other societal factors.
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. Correlation does not imply causation, and this link may be driven by underlying factors rather than a direct relationship between imports and empowerment.
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.