More democratic nations tend to have higher consumption expenditure per capita.
Comparing Liberal democracy with Final consumption expenditure (constant 2015 US$), per capita across 152 countries, 2025–2025.
- Rank correlation
- +0.57
- Holding size constant
- +0.45
- Countries compared
- 152
- Period
- 2025–2025
What might link these
Nations with more liberal democratic institutions may foster economic environments that encourage higher levels of consumer spending, potentially through greater economic freedom and stability. However, the residual correlation suggests other factors are also at play, and a direct causal link is not established.
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 correlation is moderate even after controlling for population and GDP, suggesting other unmeasured socioeconomic or political factors might be more important drivers.
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.