Government spending relative to GDP relates to imports per capita.
Comparing Imports of goods and services (current LCU), per capita with General government final consumption expenditure (constant LCU), per unit of GDP across 172 countries, 2004–2025.
- Rank correlation
- +0.76
- Holding size constant
- +0.79
- Countries compared
- 172
- Period
- 2004–2025
What might link these
Higher government spending as a share of GDP might be associated with increased demand for goods and services, some of which could be imported, especially if domestic production capacity is limited. However, the direction of causality is unclear, and both indicators could be influenced by overall economic conditions.
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 prove that government consumption expenditure causes changes in imports, as other economic factors could be driving both.
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.