Higher service exports per capita linked to more elderly women per capita.
Comparing Population ages 80 and above, female, per capita with Service exports (BoP, current US$), per capita across 185 countries, 2025–2025.
- Rank correlation
- +0.75
- Holding size constant
- +0.72
- Countries compared
- 185
- Period
- 2025–2025
What might link these
This relationship might suggest that countries with stronger service export sectors have societies that support an older female population, perhaps through better healthcare or social services. However, a strong correlation does not imply causation, and other factors like overall healthcare spending or social development could be driving 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 underlying causes for both indicators are complex and likely influenced by many unmeasured societal and economic factors.
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.