Countries with higher manufacturing output tend to import more pulp for paper.
Comparing Manufacturing, value added (current US$) with Pulp for paper — Import value across 157 countries, 2024–2025.
- Rank correlation
- +0.89
- Holding size constant
- +0.68
- Countries compared
- 157
- Period
- 2024–2025
What might link these
Manufacturing may drive demand for paper products, while pulp imports could reflect industrial needs. However, GDP and population controls reduce but don't eliminate confounding—wealthier countries may both manufacture more *and* import more pulp.
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 residual correlation could still reflect unmeasured factors like trade policies or industrial structure.
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.