Younger workforce grows as older males decline
Comparing Population ages 15-64, total, annual growth rate with Population ages 60-64, male, per capita across 213 countries, 2025–2025.
- Rank correlation
- -0.83
- Holding size constant
- -0.78
- Countries compared
- 213
- Period
- 2025–2025
What might link these
The negative correlation might suggest that countries with a growing working-age population tend to have fewer older males, possibly due to differences in life expectancy or healthcare. A careful reader should consider that urbanization rates could be a confounder, as they might influence both indicators. The relationship could be driven by underlying demographic shifts.
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 causal link between the two age groups, when in fact they might be driven by separate demographic trends.
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.