Countries with higher goods exports tend to have more older women in their population.
Comparing Goods exports (BoP, current US$) with Population ages 65 and above, female across 184 countries, 2025–2025.
- Rank correlation
- +0.83
- Holding size constant
- +0.59
- Countries compared
- 184
- Period
- 2025–2025
What might link these
Wealthier countries (with higher GDP) may export more goods and also have older populations due to better healthcare and lower birth rates. A careful reader should note that this does not imply causation—other factors like education or healthcare access could drive both trends.
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 partial correlation, while reduced, remains strong, but unmeasured confounders (e.g., urbanization) could still inflate the link.
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.