Younger populations correlate with lower per capita household spending.
Comparing Population aged 14 years or younger (thousands), per unit of GDP with Households and NPISHs Final consumption expenditure (constant 2015 US$), per capita across 169 countries, 2018–2025.
- Rank correlation
- -0.97
- Holding size constant
- -0.95
- Countries compared
- 169
- Period
- 2018–2025
What might link these
Countries with a larger proportion of young dependents may allocate more resources to public services like education and healthcare, leaving less for private consumption. Alternatively, countries with higher household consumption might have lower birth rates or earlier entry into the workforce. However, the strong negative correlation doesn't account for other factors influencing consumption, such as social welfare policies or income inequality.
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 could be influenced by unmeasured socioeconomic factors that drive both demographic structure and consumption 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.