placestats

Infrastructure score vs. Property rights

Fades after adjusting for income

Across 168 countries, Infrastructure score and Property rights rise and fall together at r = +0.53 (on a scale from −1 to +1, where 0 means no link). Comparing only countries with similar income (GDP per person) shrinks it to +0.25, which could easily be chance (q = 0.091, 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 property rights, 0.641 to 0.862 points, infrastructure score is better by 0.416 typical gaps at the top of that range than the bottom. Comparing only countries with similar national income, the gap is 0.0903 typical gaps.

Link before adjusting (r)+0.533p = 1.0e-13 · 168 countries
After adjusting for national income+0.248p = 0.001 · likely range [+0.10, +0.39]
p, allowing for regions0.019standard error 0.078 · 7 regions
Check for luck (q)0.091across 17,292 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.

Infrastructure score · typical gaps (standard deviations)link with income +0.90 · proxy
Property rights · index (0-1)link with income +0.57 · moderate

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

Every country as a dot

Infrastructure score · typical gaps (standard deviations) →Property rights · index (0-1) →-1.011.720.1150.968Afghanistan: 0.116 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.252 index (0-1)Angola: -0.152 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.415 index (0-1)Albania: 1.14 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.799 index (0-1)United Arab Emirates: 1.61 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.319 index (0-1)Argentina: 1.25 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.872 index (0-1)Armenia: 1.09 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.753 index (0-1)Australia: 1.5 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.892 index (0-1)Austria: 1.37 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.858 index (0-1)Azerbaijan: 1.19 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.639 index (0-1)Burundi: -0.835 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.621 index (0-1)Belgium: 1.64 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.954 index (0-1)Benin: 0.00537 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.901 index (0-1)Burkina Faso: -0.245 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.645 index (0-1)Bangladesh: 0.649 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.896 index (0-1)Bulgaria: 1.25 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.905 index (0-1)Bahrain: 1.17 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.792 index (0-1)Bosnia and Herzegovina: 1.29 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.816 index (0-1)Belarus: 1.48 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.71 index (0-1)Bolivia: 0.886 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.674 index (0-1)Brazil: 1.18 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.808 index (0-1)Barbados: 1.31 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.844 index (0-1)Bhutan: 0.847 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.682 index (0-1)Botswana: 0.5 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.826 index (0-1)Central African Republic: -1.01 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.322 index (0-1)Canada: 1.56 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.784 index (0-1)Switzerland: 1.7 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.931 index (0-1)Chile: 1.25 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.929 index (0-1)China: 1.66 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.427 index (0-1)Cote d'Ivoire: 0.207 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.689 index (0-1)Cameroon: 0.557 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.803 index (0-1)Congo, Dem. Rep.: -0.672 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.256 index (0-1)Congo, Rep.: 0.312 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.533 index (0-1)Colombia: 1.01 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.772 index (0-1)Comoros: 0.259 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.476 index (0-1)Cabo Verde: 0.806 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.846 index (0-1)Costa Rica: 1.19 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.925 index (0-1)Cyprus: 1.47 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.789 index (0-1)Czechia: 1.48 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.929 index (0-1)Germany: 1.65 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.968 index (0-1)Djibouti: 0.0105 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.562 index (0-1)Denmark: 1.65 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.941 index (0-1)Dominican Republic: 0.956 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.816 index (0-1)Algeria: 0.932 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.739 index (0-1)Ecuador: 0.989 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.644 index (0-1)Egypt, Arab Rep.: 0.864 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.642 index (0-1)Spain: 1.55 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.954 index (0-1)Estonia: 1.45 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.927 index (0-1)Ethiopia: -0.309 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.493 index (0-1)Finland: 1.48 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.824 index (0-1)Fiji: 0.665 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.532 index (0-1)France: 1.7 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.946 index (0-1)Gabon: 0.665 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.798 index (0-1)United Kingdom: 1.6 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.858 index (0-1)Georgia: 1.29 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.886 index (0-1)Ghana: 0.59 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.847 index (0-1)Guinea: 0.156 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.319 index (0-1)Gambia, The: 0.215 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.814 index (0-1)Guinea-Bissau: -0.158 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.514 index (0-1)Equatorial Guinea: -0.269 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.413 index (0-1)Greece: 1.57 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.899 index (0-1)Guatemala: 0.576 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.627 index (0-1)Guyana: 0.809 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.836 index (0-1)Hong Kong SAR, China: 1.57 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.871 index (0-1)Honduras: 0.417 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.851 index (0-1)Croatia: 1.28 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.955 index (0-1)Haiti: -0.312 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.635 index (0-1)Hungary: 1.5 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.922 index (0-1)Indonesia: 0.742 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.672 index (0-1)India: 0.527 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.77 index (0-1)Ireland: 1.43 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.919 index (0-1)Iran, Islamic Rep.: 0.97 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.685 index (0-1)Iraq: 1.04 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.648 index (0-1)Iceland: 1.53 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.959 index (0-1)Israel: 1.31 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.885 index (0-1)Italy: 1.36 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.927 index (0-1)Jamaica: 1.06 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.898 index (0-1)Jordan: 0.776 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.808 index (0-1)Japan: 1.45 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.924 index (0-1)Kazakhstan: 1.09 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.763 index (0-1)Kenya: 0.22 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.706 index (0-1)Kyrgyz Republic: 0.943 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.85 index (0-1)Cambodia: 0.689 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.498 index (0-1)Korea, Rep.: 1.72 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.829 index (0-1)Kuwait: 0.878 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.609 index (0-1)Lao PDR: 0.399 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.344 index (0-1)Lebanon: 0.731 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.671 index (0-1)Liberia: -0.767 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.745 index (0-1)Libya: 0.512 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.558 index (0-1)Sri Lanka: 0.669 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.807 index (0-1)Lesotho: -0.0187 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.712 index (0-1)Lithuania: 1.29 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.934 index (0-1)Luxembourg: 1.59 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.929 index (0-1)Latvia: 1.28 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.91 index (0-1)Morocco: 0.928 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.803 index (0-1)Moldova: 1.23 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.92 index (0-1)Madagascar: -0.434 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.832 index (0-1)Maldives: 1.11 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.82 index (0-1)Mexico: 1.13 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.846 index (0-1)North Macedonia: 1.36 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.799 index (0-1)Mali: -0.495 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.775 index (0-1)Malta: 1.63 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.919 index (0-1)Myanmar: 0.298 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.288 index (0-1)Montenegro: 1.37 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.91 index (0-1)Mongolia: 1.03 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.803 index (0-1)Mozambique: -0.592 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.476 index (0-1)Mauritania: 0.0018 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.638 index (0-1)Mauritius: 1.17 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.83 index (0-1)Malawi: -0.672 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.787 index (0-1)Malaysia: 1.09 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.709 index (0-1)Namibia: 0.203 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.846 index (0-1)Niger: -0.7 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.687 index (0-1)Nigeria: -0.0861 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.742 index (0-1)Nicaragua: 0.574 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.495 index (0-1)Netherlands: 1.63 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.851 index (0-1)Norway: 1.68 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.934 index (0-1)Nepal: 0.616 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.723 index (0-1)New Zealand: 1.51 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.935 index (0-1)Oman: 1.03 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.604 index (0-1)Pakistan: 0.386 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.763 index (0-1)Panama: 0.927 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.812 index (0-1)Peru: 0.907 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.8 index (0-1)Philippines: 0.696 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.792 index (0-1)Papua New Guinea: -0.611 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.581 index (0-1)Poland: 1.24 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.93 index (0-1)Portugal: 1.6 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.659 index (0-1)Paraguay: 0.928 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.748 index (0-1)West Bank and Gaza: 0.774 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.646 index (0-1)Qatar: 1.06 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.115 index (0-1)Romania: 1.45 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.9 index (0-1)Russian Federation: 1.32 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.762 index (0-1)Rwanda: 0.0662 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.172 index (0-1)Saudi Arabia: 1.67 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.517 index (0-1)Sudan: -0.572 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.145 index (0-1)Senegal: 0.482 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.813 index (0-1)Singapore: 1.33 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.715 index (0-1)Solomon Islands: 0.0941 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.772 index (0-1)Sierra Leone: -0.336 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.673 index (0-1)El Salvador: 0.822 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.717 index (0-1)Somalia, Fed. Rep.: -0.395 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.252 index (0-1)Serbia: 1.38 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.896 index (0-1)Sao Tome and Principe: 0.187 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.804 index (0-1)Suriname: 0.901 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.859 index (0-1)Slovak Republic: 1.4 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.929 index (0-1)Slovenia: 1.42 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.888 index (0-1)Sweden: 1.57 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.933 index (0-1)Eswatini: 0.534 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.156 index (0-1)Seychelles: 1.35 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.74 index (0-1)Syrian Arab Republic: 0.27 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.468 index (0-1)Chad: -0.72 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.779 index (0-1)Togo: -0.0274 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.698 index (0-1)Thailand: 1.06 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.717 index (0-1)Tajikistan: 0.389 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.559 index (0-1)Turkmenistan: 0.294 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.163 index (0-1)Timor-Leste: 0.389 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.65 index (0-1)Trinidad and Tobago: 1.22 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.882 index (0-1)Tunisia: 0.956 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.87 index (0-1)Turkiye: 1.19 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.629 index (0-1)Tanzania: -0.0741 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.657 index (0-1)Uganda: -0.319 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.451 index (0-1)Ukraine: 0.97 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.79 index (0-1)Uruguay: 1.41 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.695 index (0-1)United States: 1.53 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.844 index (0-1)Uzbekistan: 1.42 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.623 index (0-1)Viet Nam: 1.17 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.71 index (0-1)Vanuatu: -0.0444 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.725 index (0-1)South Africa: 0.709 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.858 index (0-1)Zambia: -0.161 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.633 index (0-1)Zimbabwe: 0.0863 typical gaps (standard deviations), 0.544 index (0-1)AREBELCAFCHNCODDEUFRALBRMWIQATSDNTCD

best-fit line line after adjusting

Four ways to measure the link

MethodrpCountries
Standard (Pearson), not adjusted+0.5331.0e-13168
By rank (Spearman), not adjusted+0.6063.1e-18168
Standard (Pearson), adjusted for national income+0.2480.001168
By rank (Spearman), adjusted for national income+0.2520.001168

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: +0.285 (a minus sign means it grew).

How solid is it?

Leaving out one country at a time, r ranges from +0.187 (without QAT) to +0.282 (without CHN). 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: QAT (-0.061).

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 & Pacific21+0.05
Europe & Central Asia48+0.55
Latin America & Caribbean23+0.21
Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan & Pakistan22+0.36
Sub-Saharan Africa46+0.16

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 third56+0.07
Middle third56+0.33
Richest third56+0.35

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
Christians99+0.30
Muslims48+0.27

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
France25-0.00
Never a European colony21+0.20
Spain19+0.58
United Kingdom49+0.31

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
Nationalist25+0.53
No strong official ideology116+0.26

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 banned26-0.08
No parties banned121+0.27

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 = +0.176 after dropping 9 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


typical gaps (standard deviations)

index (0-1)
Years
Korea, Rep. KOR1.720.8292024, 2025
Switzerland CHE1.70.9312024, 2025
France FRA1.70.9462024, 2025
Norway NOR1.680.9342024, 2025
Saudi Arabia SAU1.670.5172024, 2025
China CHN1.660.4272024, 2025
Denmark DNK1.650.9412024, 2025
Germany DEU1.650.9682024, 2025
Belgium BEL1.640.9542024, 2025
Malta MLT1.630.9192024, 2025
Netherlands NLD1.630.8512024, 2025
United Arab Emirates ARE1.610.3192024, 2025
Portugal PRT1.60.6592024, 2025
United Kingdom GBR1.60.8582024, 2025
Luxembourg LUX1.590.9292024, 2025

wdi
Coppedge, M. et al., V-Dem Dataset v16, Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Project; Lindberg, S. I. et al., Varieties of Party Identity and Organization (V-Party) Dataset. Read from the V-Dem Institute's vdemdata package.

Sources

Infrastructure score

Infrastructure score

PlaceStats · via PlaceStats · Derived work; each member keeps its own licence · updated recomputed with the panel

The average of 5 measures from 1 publisher. 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: Electricity access, Slum share of urban population, Mobile subscriptions, Fixed broadband, Internet users.

Property rights

Property rights index

V-Dem Institute, University of Gothenburg · CC BY-SA 4.0 · updated annual (V-Dem); V-Party per election, to 2019

How far people have the right to own, buy, inherit and sell private property, including land, from 0 (virtually no one) to 1 (virtually everyone). It combines V-Dem's expert ratings for men and for women. Limits can come from the law, from the state failing to enforce it, or from custom and religion. It is about the right to property, not how much property people actually own.

How this was computed

Data used: most recent value in 2010-2025; values come from 2022–2025. 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 17,292 pairs at once, using the Benjamini–Hochberg method. Underlying data last updated V-Dem v16; V-Party v2. How the country data works · explore Infrastructure score and Property rights

This page shows that two measures go together. It does not show that Infrastructure score changes Property rights, or the reverse. These figures also describe countries, not individual people. See the ecological fallacy.

More links with Infrastructure score or Property rights