placestats

Hours worked (PWT) vs. Political rights (FH)

Holds up after adjusting for income

Across 127 countries, Hours worked (PWT) and Political rights (FH) rise and fall together at r = +0.58 (on a scale from −1 to +1, where 0 means no link). It holds up almost unchanged when only countries with similar income (GDP per person) are compared (r = +0.50, q = 0.022, allowing for the many pairs tested).

Comparing countries across the middle half of political rights (FH), 2 to 6 points, hours worked (PWT) is 316 hours per year higher at the top of that range than the bottom. Comparing only countries with similar national income, the gap is 301 hours per year.

Link before adjusting (r)+0.578p = 1.1e-12 · 127 countries
After adjusting for national income+0.497p = 3.2e-9 · likely range [+0.35, +0.62]
p, allowing for regions0.009standard error 0.131 · 7 regions
Check for luck (q)0.022across 18,622 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.

Hours worked (PWT) · hours per yearlink with income -0.40 · moderate
Political rights (FH) · rating (1-7, 1 = most free)link with income -0.48 · moderate

“Link with income” is how closely each measure tracks GDP per person across countries, from −1 to +1.

Every country as a dot

Hours worked (PWT) · hours per year →Political rights (FH) · rating (1-7, 1 = most free) →1,3352,65817Angola: 2,115 hours per year, 6 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Albania: 2,152 hours per year, 3 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)United Arab Emirates: 2,514 hours per year, 7 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Argentina: 1,612 hours per year, 2 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Armenia: 1,976 hours per year, 4 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Australia: 1,611 hours per year, 1 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Austria: 1,438 hours per year, 1 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Azerbaijan: 1,791 hours per year, 7 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Belgium: 1,593 hours per year, 1 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Burkina Faso: 2,356 hours per year, 7 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Bangladesh: 2,383 hours per year, 5 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Bulgaria: 1,659 hours per year, 2 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Bahrain: 2,052 hours per year, 7 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Bosnia and Herzegovina: 2,122 hours per year, 5 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Belarus: 1,875 hours per year, 7 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Bolivia: 1,968 hours per year, 2 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Brazil: 1,994 hours per year, 2 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Botswana: 2,258 hours per year, 2 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Canada: 1,731 hours per year, 1 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Switzerland: 1,529 hours per year, 1 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Chile: 1,950 hours per year, 1 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)China: 2,328 hours per year, 7 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Cote d'Ivoire: 2,103 hours per year, 5 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Cameroon: 2,181 hours per year, 6 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Congo, Dem. Rep.: 1,841 hours per year, 7 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Congo, Rep.: 2,534 hours per year, 7 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Colombia: 2,471 hours per year, 2 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Costa Rica: 2,177 hours per year, 1 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Cyprus: 1,840 hours per year, 1 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Czechia: 1,774 hours per year, 1 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Germany: 1,335 hours per year, 1 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Denmark: 1,380 hours per year, 1 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Dominican Republic: 2,072 hours per year, 3 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Algeria: 2,232 hours per year, 6 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Ecuador: 1,594 hours per year, 3 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Egypt, Arab Rep.: 2,369 hours per year, 6 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Spain: 1,638 hours per year, 1 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Estonia: 1,606 hours per year, 1 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Ethiopia: 1,599 hours per year, 6 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Finland: 1,497 hours per year, 1 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)France: 1,487 hours per year, 1 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Gabon: 2,174 hours per year, 7 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)United Kingdom: 1,523 hours per year, 1 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Georgia: 1,932 hours per year, 4 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Ghana: 1,656 hours per year, 2 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Greece: 1,893 hours per year, 2 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Guatemala: 2,151 hours per year, 4 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Hong Kong SAR, China: 2,240 hours per year, 6 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Croatia: 1,974 hours per year, 2 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Hungary: 1,668 hours per year, 3 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Indonesia: 1,958 hours per year, 3 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)India: 2,383 hours per year, 2 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Ireland: 1,654 hours per year, 1 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Iran, Islamic Rep.: 2,246 hours per year, 7 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Iraq: 1,583 hours per year, 5 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Iceland: 1,452 hours per year, 1 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Israel: 1,890 hours per year, 2 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Italy: 1,701 hours per year, 2 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Jamaica: 1,963 hours per year, 2 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Jordan: 2,483 hours per year, 5 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Japan: 1,654 hours per year, 1 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Kazakhstan: 1,975 hours per year, 7 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Kenya: 2,035 hours per year, 4 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Kyrgyz Republic: 1,830 hours per year, 7 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Cambodia: 2,389 hours per year, 7 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Korea, Rep.: 1,910 hours per year, 2 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Kuwait: 2,318 hours per year, 6 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Lebanon: 2,412 hours per year, 5 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Sri Lanka: 2,053 hours per year, 3 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Lithuania: 1,640 hours per year, 1 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Luxembourg: 1,452 hours per year, 1 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Latvia: 1,625 hours per year, 1 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Morocco: 2,174 hours per year, 5 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Moldova: 1,989 hours per year, 3 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Madagascar: 1,799 hours per year, 5 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Mexico: 1,629 hours per year, 3 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)North Macedonia: 1,949 hours per year, 3 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Mali: 2,243 hours per year, 7 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Malta: 1,848 hours per year, 2 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Myanmar: 2,197 hours per year, 7 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Mozambique: 1,507 hours per year, 5 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Mauritius: 1,990 hours per year, 1 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Malawi: 1,596 hours per year, 2 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Malaysia: 2,308 hours per year, 4 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Namibia: 2,184 hours per year, 3 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Niger: 2,069 hours per year, 7 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Nigeria: 2,062 hours per year, 4 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Netherlands: 1,439 hours per year, 1 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Norway: 1,412 hours per year, 1 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)New Zealand: 1,708 hours per year, 1 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Oman: 2,266 hours per year, 6 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Pakistan: 2,471 hours per year, 5 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Peru: 2,143 hours per year, 3 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Philippines: 2,096 hours per year, 3 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Poland: 1,807 hours per year, 2 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Portugal: 1,735 hours per year, 1 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Paraguay: 2,123 hours per year, 3 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Qatar: 2,435 hours per year, 6 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Romania: 1,826 hours per year, 2 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Russian Federation: 2,087 hours per year, 7 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Rwanda: 1,584 hours per year, 6 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Saudi Arabia: 2,125 hours per year, 7 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Sudan: 2,658 hours per year, 7 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Senegal: 2,335 hours per year, 2 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Singapore: 2,283 hours per year, 4 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Serbia: 1,995 hours per year, 4 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Slovak Republic: 1,621 hours per year, 2 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Slovenia: 1,588 hours per year, 1 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Sweden: 1,432 hours per year, 1 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Syrian Arab Republic: 1,621 hours per year, 7 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Chad: 1,585 hours per year, 7 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Thailand: 2,177 hours per year, 6 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Tajikistan: 2,134 hours per year, 7 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Turkmenistan: 2,179 hours per year, 7 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Trinidad and Tobago: 1,610 hours per year, 2 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Tunisia: 2,288 hours per year, 6 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Turkiye: 1,747 hours per year, 5 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Tanzania: 2,129 hours per year, 6 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Uganda: 2,128 hours per year, 6 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Ukraine: 2,045 hours per year, 4 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Uruguay: 1,481 hours per year, 1 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)United States: 1,789 hours per year, 2 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Uzbekistan: 2,099 hours per year, 7 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Viet Nam: 2,160 hours per year, 7 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)South Africa: 2,181 hours per year, 2 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Zambia: 2,200 hours per year, 4 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)Zimbabwe: 2,311 hours per year, 6 rating (1-7, 1 = most free)ARECOGCOLDEUDNKINDNORRWASDNSENSYRTCD

best-fit line line after adjusting

Four ways to measure the link

MethodrpCountries
Standard (Pearson), not adjusted+0.5781.1e-12127
By rank (Spearman), not adjusted+0.5922.3e-13127
Standard (Pearson), adjusted for national income+0.4973.2e-9127
By rank (Spearman), adjusted for national income+0.4831.0e-8127

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 127 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: +0.081 (a minus sign means it grew).

How solid is it?

Leaving out one country at a time, r ranges from +0.473 (without ARE) to +0.518 (without COL). 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: ARE (-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.

nr
East Asia & Pacific14+0.85
Europe & Central Asia47+0.39
Latin America & Caribbean15-0.04
Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan & Pakistan18+0.28
Sub-Saharan Africa28+0.34

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.

nr
Poorest third43+0.21
Middle third42+0.36
Richest third42+0.85

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.

nr
Christians74+0.34
Muslims36-0.10

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.

nr
France16-0.17
Never a European colony17+0.60
Spain14-0.04
United Kingdom35+0.64

By official ideology

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.

nr
Nationalist21+0.25
No strong official ideology85+0.52

By party system

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.

nr
A few parties banned18+0.36
No parties banned93+0.36

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 = +0.497 after dropping 0 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.

Loading…

Over time, within countries

Everything above compares countries with each other at one moment. This section compares each country only with itself over 34years. So a link here can’t come from anything about a country that stays the same, such as its history, geography, institutions or culture.

Within countries over time, there is no link that is clearly more than chance (r = -0.048, comparing each country only with itself over the years, and each year only with the same year elsewhere). Whatever the cross-country picture shows, countries whose hours worked (PWT) moved did not tend to see their political rights (FH) move with it.

Across countries (adjusted)+0.497for comparison
Within countries-0.079each country vs itself
…and vs the same year elsewhere-0.048q = 0.635 · 130 countries
Year-on-year changes-0.018q = 0.576
Read with care.
  • Almost all of this indicator's variation is between countries, not within them, so the within-country estimate rests on a small part of the data.

3,432 country-years (one country in one year), 130 countries, 1990–2023, about 26 years each on average. Share of the variation that happens within countries over time: 9% for Hours worked (PWT), 7% for Political rights (FH). The margins of error allow for each country appearing many times, and for each year’s value being close to the year before.

Year-to-year changes are a cautious test, not a final answer. Looking only at changes from one year to the next removes each country’s own trends. But it also makes measurement mistakes louder, which pulls the results toward zero. A near-zero result here is weak evidence of no link, not proof.

With one measure years behind the other

0.10−0.1-100+10years Political rights (FH) trails Hours worked (PWT) →lag -10: r = -0.022 (n = 2,812)lag -9: r = -0.034 (n = 2,880)lag -8: r = -0.041 (n = 2,948)lag -7: r = -0.050 (n = 3,016)lag -6: r = -0.053 (n = 3,084)lag -5: r = -0.056 (n = 3,152)lag -4: r = -0.049 (n = 3,210)lag -3: r = -0.041 (n = 3,267)lag -2: r = -0.045 (n = 3,323)lag -1: r = -0.049 (n = 3,378)lag +0: r = -0.048 (n = 3,432)lag +1: r = -0.039 (n = 3,432)lag +2: r = -0.036 (n = 3,432)lag +3: r = -0.042 (n = 3,302)lag +4: r = -0.051 (n = 3,172)lag +5: r = -0.064 (n = 3,042)lag +6: r = -0.062 (n = 2,912)lag +7: r = -0.066 (n = 2,782)lag +8: r = -0.061 (n = 2,652)lag +9: r = -0.061 (n = 2,522)lag +10: r = -0.056 (n = 2,392)

Same year (lag 0): -0.048. A peak away from zero does not show which comes first. These series change slowly — this year’s value is close to last year’s. That makes the curve smooth and nearly symmetric, whatever produced the data. Even a sharp peak at one lag (a gap of some years) would not prove that one measure changes the other.

The data


hours per year
rating (1-7, 1 = most free)		Years
Sudan SDN2,65872023, 2025
Congo, Rep. COG2,53472023, 2025
United Arab Emirates ARE2,51472023, 2025
Jordan JOR2,48352023, 2025
Pakistan PAK2,47152023, 2025
Colombia COL2,47122023, 2025
Qatar QAT2,43562023, 2025
Lebanon LBN2,41252023, 2025
Cambodia KHM2,38972023, 2025
Bangladesh BGD2,38352023, 2025
India IND2,38322023, 2025
Egypt, Arab Rep. EGY2,36962023, 2025
Burkina Faso BFA2,35672023, 2025
Senegal SEN2,33522023, 2025
China CHN2,32872023, 2025

Feenstra, Robert C., Robert Inklaar and Marcel P. Timmer (2015), "The Next Generation of the Penn World Table", American Economic Review, 105(10), 3150-3182, www.ggdc.net/pwt. Data: Penn World Table version 11.0, Groningen Growth and Development Centre, doi:10.34894/FABVLR.
Freedom House, Freedom in the World

Sources

Hours worked (PWT)

Average annual hours worked per person engaged (Penn World Table)

Groningen Growth and Development Centre, University of Groningen · via DataverseNL · CC BY 4.0 · updated irregular (new versions every few years)

Hours actually worked in a year, averaged over everyone with a job, including the self-employed and part-timers. It measures the same thing as the OECD hours measure, and for countries in both the two mostly agree. This one is kept because it reaches much further: about 130 countries each year from 2010 to 2023, where the OECD series has 38 countries and stops in 2016. Before 2000 it covers mainly rich countries. No "better" direction is set.

Political rights (FH)

Political rights rating

Freedom House · via Our World in Data · Free to use with attribution · updated annual

Scored 1 to 7, where 1 is most free. That is the reverse of most measures on this site. Covers elections, the freedom to form competing parties, and how government works. Freedom House changed its method in 2003, adding scores for smaller categories. But the 1-7 ratings are still the published series that runs through all the years.

How this was computed

Data used: most recent value in 2010-2025; values come from 2023–2025. 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 18,622 pairs at once, using the Benjamini–Hochberg method. Underlying data last updated V-Dem v16; V-Party v2. How the country data works · explore Hours worked (PWT) and Political rights (FH)

This page shows that two measures go together. It does not show that Hours worked (PWT) changes Political rights (FH), or the reverse. These figures also describe countries, not individual people. See the ecological fallacy.

More links with Hours worked (PWT) or Political rights (FH)