Lower youth dependency linked to higher investment per person.
Comparing Population ages 0-14 (% of total population) with Gross fixed capital formation (constant 2015 US$), per capita across 159 countries, 2025–2025.
- Rank correlation
- -0.79
- Holding size constant
- -0.70
- Countries compared
- 159
- Period
- 2025–2025
What might link these
A younger population generally requires more public investment in education and healthcare, potentially diverting resources from capital formation. Conversely, societies with fewer young dependents may have more capacity for investment in production.
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 does not imply that a lower birth rate directly causes higher investment, as both could be influenced by broader socio-economic development.
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.