Higher SDRs per capita linked to lower net secondary income.
Comparing Net secondary income (Net current transfers from abroad) (current US$) with SDRs holdings, US dollar, per capita across 182 countries, 2019–2025.
- Rank correlation
- -0.64
- Holding size constant
- -0.56
- Countries compared
- 182
- Period
- 2019–2025
What might link these
Countries with more SDR holdings per person tend to receive fewer net current transfers from abroad. This suggests that nations with stronger reserve positions might be less reliant on or less likely to be recipients of such international transfers.
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 relationship is weakened after controlling for population and GDP, indicating these factors partially explain the initial correlation.
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.