Exporters consume more oil per capita
Comparing Merchandise exports (current US$), per capita with Oil consumption, per capita across 199 countries, 2025–2025.
- Rank correlation
- +0.73
- Holding size constant
- +0.66
- Countries compared
- 199
- Period
- 2025–2025
What might link these
The relationship between merchandise exports and oil consumption per capita might be linked through industrial and transportation activities that drive both exports and energy demand. A careful reader should consider the potential role of a country's industrialization level as a confounder. This could influence both the capacity to export goods and the consumption of oil.
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 could mislead by implying a direct relationship between exporting merchandise and consuming oil, when in fact, both might be driven by underlying factors like industrial 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.