Higher egalitarian democracy scores associate with higher per-capita economic output.
Comparing Egalitarian democracy index vdem with Gross value added at basic prices (GVA) (constant 2015 US$), per capita across 165 countries, 2025–2025.
- Rank correlation
- +0.60
- Holding size constant
- +0.43
- Countries compared
- 165
- Period
- 2025–2025
What might link these
Egalitarian democracies may foster inclusive institutions that boost productivity, while wealthier societies may invest more in democratic governance. However, reverse causality and omitted variables (e.g., institutional quality) could blur the link.
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. Correlation does not imply causation; richer countries might afford better data collection, inflating both scores.
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.