Across 168 countries, Anaemia in women and Governance score rise and fall together at r = -0.52 (on a scale from −1 to +1, where 0 means no link). Comparing only countries with similar income (GDP per person) shrinks it to -0.29, which could easily be chance (q = 0.27, allowing for the many pairs tested, and allowing for countries in the same region being alike). So the first figure mostly shows richer countries differing from poorer ones, not a link between these two things.
Comparing countries across the middle half of anaemia in women, 19.8% to 35% of women aged 15-49, governance score is worse by 0.636 typical gaps at the top of that range than the bottom. Comparing only countries with similar national income, the gap is 0.407 typical gaps.
Link before adjusting (r)-0.525p = 2.8e-13 · 168 countries
After adjusting for national income-0.287p = 0.000 · likely range [-0.42, -0.14]
p, allowing for regions0.098standard error 0.147 · 7 regions
Check for luck (q)0.267across 12,497 pairs
How to read these.r runs from −1 (one goes up as the other goes down) to +1 (they rise together), and 0 means no link. Adjusting for national income means comparing countries with the same GDP per person, so differences in wealth can’t explain the link. Income is used in percentage terms, since an extra $1,000 means more to a poor country than to a rich one. p is how likely a link this strong would be if there were really none. Below 0.05 means it is unlikely to be chance. Very small values are written in short form: 1.1e-32 means a decimal point followed by 31 zeros and then 11, so very close to zero. The likely range is where the true figure probably lies, and a range that crosses zero means the link could easily be chance. Countries in the same region tend to resemble each other, so the third figure allows for that, which gives a fairer p. The standard error is the typical size of the error in r. Finally, testing this many pairs means some will look strong by luck alone. A q below 0.05 means this link is unlikely to be one of those.
Anaemia in women · % of women aged 15-49link with income -0.67 · high
Governance score · typical gaps (standard deviations)link with income +0.53 · moderate
“Link with income” is how closely each measure tracks GDP per person across countries, from −1 to +1.
Every country as a dot
best-fit line line after adjusting
Four ways to measure the link
Method
r
p
Countries
Standard (Pearson), not adjusted
-0.525
2.8e-13
168
By rank (Spearman), not adjusted
-0.561
2.5e-15
168
Standard (Pearson), adjusted for national income
-0.287
0.000
168
By rank (Spearman), adjusted for national income
-0.309
5.0e-5
168
The rank version uses only each country’s place in line, from lowest to highest, so a few extreme countries count for less. The adjusted and unadjusted versions use the same 168 countries: those that report both measures and GDP per person. So the gap between them comes from the adjustment, not from a change in which countries are counted. Drop in the size of r after adjusting: +0.237 (a minus sign means it grew).
How solid is it?
Leaving out one country at a time, r ranges from -0.307 (without CHN) to -0.263 (without BHR). The bar above shows that range on a scale from −1 to +1, with the solid line at the full result. The single country that moves r most: BHR (+0.024).
Within each region
Countries are not separate, unrelated cases, and neighbors share a lot. A link that holds inside each region is far more believable than one that shows up only when comparing regions.
n
r
East Asia & Pacific
20
-0.30
Europe & Central Asia
49
-0.48
Latin America & Caribbean
24
-0.22
Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan & Pakistan
21
-0.44
Sub-Saharan Africa
46
-0.14
By income third
If the link shows up only in the richest third of countries, it is a feature of rich countries, not a general pattern.
n
r
Poorest third
56
-0.08
Middle third
56
-0.24
Richest third
56
-0.63
By largest religious group
Countries grouped by a label they share, such as main religion, rather than by a number. Groups of fewer than twelve countries are not shown. These groups differ in income, region and history all at once. So a gap between them is a place to start asking questions, not an answer.
n
r
Christians
100
-0.21
Muslims
47
+0.12
By last european coloniser
Countries grouped by a label they share, such as main religion, rather than by a number. Groups of fewer than twelve countries are not shown. These groups differ in income, region and history all at once. So a gap between them is a place to start asking questions, not an answer.
n
r
France
25
+0.23
Never a European colony
21
-0.36
Spain
18
-0.52
United Kingdom
51
-0.38
Without outliers (countries far outside the middle half of countries on either measure, by more than one and a half times the width of that middle half): r = -0.277 after dropping 1 countries.
Two series, one country
Both measures over the years for one country you pick. The two charts are stacked so they share only the years along the bottom.
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Over time, within countries
Everything above compares countries with each other at one moment. This section compares each country only with itself over 0years. So a link here can’t come from anything about a country that stays the same, such as its history, geography, institutions or culture.
Not enough history inside each country to look at this over time. That needs countries measured for several years in a row, and at least one of these measures is measured too rarely.
The data
% of women aged 15-49
typical gaps (standard deviations)
Years
Gabon GAB
59.9%
-0.529
2023, 2025
Mali MLI
56.5%
-0.753
2023, 2025
Mauritania MRT
54.5%
-0.421
2023, 2025
India IND
53.7%
0.146
2023, 2025
Cote d'Ivoire CIV
51.4%
-0.116
2023, 2025
Benin BEN
50%
0.285
2023, 2025
Niger NER
47.1%
-0.548
2023, 2025
Mozambique MOZ
47%
-0.298
2023, 2025
Congo, Rep. COG
46.7%
-0.925
2023, 2025
Chad TCD
46.5%
-0.999
2023, 2025
Pakistan PAK
46.5%
-0.437
2023, 2025
Somalia, Fed. Rep. SOM
46.2%
-1.01
2023, 2025
Gambia, The GMB
46.1%
0.362
2023, 2025
Haiti HTI
45.9%
-0.66
2023, 2025
Guinea-Bissau GNB
45.7%
-0.465
2023, 2025
World Bank, World Development Indicators fh; un_sdg; vdem; wdi; wgi
PlaceStats · via PlaceStats · Derived work; each member keeps its own licence · updated recomputed with the panel
The average of 19 measures from 5 publishers. Each measure is first put on a common scale: 0 is the average country in an average year, and 1 is a typical gap between countries (a standard deviation). Each is turned so that higher is better. Measures are averaged within each publisher first, so a publisher with many measures does not count for more. Members: Civil liberties (FH), Political rights (FH), Pre-trial detainee share, Civil society participation, Political corruption, Electoral democracy, Freedom of association, Freedom of expression, Free and fair elections, Liberal democracy, Participatory democracy, Political civil liberties, Birth registration, Control of corruption, Government effectiveness, Political stability, Rule of law, Regulatory quality, Voice and accountability.
How this was computed
Data used: most recent value in 2010-2025; values come from 2011–2025. To adjust for income, each measure is first predicted from GDP per person (in percentage terms, on a log scale) with a straight-line fit. Only what is left over is then compared. This is called a partial correlation. The line is drawn the standard way (ordinary least squares), which picks the line that comes closest to all the countries at once. The error margins allow for countries in the same region resembling each other, using 7 World Bank regions. The q-value corrects for testing all 12,497 pairs at once, using the Benjamini–Hochberg method. Underlying data last updated DYB 2024. How the country data works · explore Anaemia in women and Governance score
This page shows that two measures go together. It does not show that Anaemia in women changes Governance score, or the reverse. These figures also describe countries, not individual people. See the ecological fallacy.
More links with Anaemia in women or Governance score