placestats

One-person households vs. Researchers

Holds up after adjusting for income

Across 107 countries, One-person households and Researchers rise and fall together at r = +0.70 (on a scale from −1 to +1, where 0 means no link). Comparing only countries with similar income (GDP per person) shrinks it to +0.46 (q = 0.010, allowing for the many pairs tested). Much of the first figure is that both measures rise with national income, but a moderate positive link remains.

Comparing countries across the middle half of one-person households, 7.62% to 23.9% of households, researchers is better by 2,586 per million people at the top of that range than the bottom. Comparing only countries with similar national income, the gap is 1,557 per million people.

Link before adjusting (r)+0.704p = 2.9e-17 · 107 countries
After adjusting for national income+0.457p = 8.4e-7 · likely range [+0.29, +0.60]
p, allowing for regions0.000standard error 0.061 · 7 regions
Check for luck (q)0.010across 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.

One-person households · % of householdslink with income +0.70 · high
Researchers · per million peoplelink with income +0.85 · proxy

Both of these rise and fall closely with national income, so a strong link between them before adjusting was close to certain. Read the adjusted figure, not the first one.

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

Every country as a dot

One-person households · % of households →Researchers · per million people →1.01%41.1%1.459,472Angola: 10.8% of households, 18.9 per million peopleAlbania: 9.95% of households, 429 per million peopleArgentina: 22.8% of households, 1,313 per million peopleArmenia: 15.2% of households, 942 per million peopleAustralia: 22.8% of households, 4,569 per million peopleAustria: 36.3% of households, 6,634 per million peopleBurundi: 6.04% of households, 22.5 per million peopleBelgium: 34% of households, 5,990 per million peopleBurkina Faso: 6.64% of households, 46.6 per million peopleBulgaria: 30.8% of households, 2,401 per million peopleBosnia and Herzegovina: 11.5% of households, 705 per million peopleBelarus: 38% of households, 1,568 per million peopleBolivia: 20.5% of households, 63.1 per million peopleBrazil: 12% of households, 903 per million peopleBrunei Darussalam: 7.22% of households, 506 per million peopleBhutan: 6.13% of households, 236 per million peopleCanada: 28.2% of households, 5,624 per million peopleChile: 20.2% of households, 707 per million peopleCongo, Dem. Rep.: 7.55% of households, 10.1 per million peopleCongo, Rep.: 13.8% of households, 127 per million peopleColombia: 11.1% of households, 90.2 per million peopleCosta Rica: 12.1% of households, 508 per million peopleCyprus: 20.8% of households, 1,686 per million peopleCzechia: 32.5% of households, 4,505 per million peopleGermany: 37.3% of households, 5,926 per million peopleDominican Republic: 20.1% of households, 20 per million peopleAlgeria: 1.61% of households, 1,764 per million peopleEgypt, Arab Rep.: 6.48% of households, 1,120 per million peopleSpain: 23.2% of households, 3,654 per million peopleEthiopia: 6.36% of households, 89 per million peopleFinland: 41% of households, 8,315 per million peopleFrance: 35.5% of households, 5,369 per million peopleUnited Kingdom: 30.6% of households, 4,473 per million peopleGeorgia: 15% of households, 1,896 per million peopleGhana: 21.5% of households, 87.5 per million peopleGambia, The: 9.72% of households, 50.9 per million peopleGreece: 25.7% of households, 5,283 per million peopleGuatemala: 4.33% of households, 1.45 per million peopleHong Kong SAR, China: 18.3% of households, 5,874 per million peopleHonduras: 10.4% of households, 188 per million peopleCroatia: 24.6% of households, 2,440 per million peopleHungary: 32.1% of households, 4,567 per million peopleIndonesia: 7.1% of households, 395 per million peopleIndia: 5.11% of households, 259 per million peopleIreland: 22% of households, 5,753 per million peopleIran, Islamic Rep.: 7.16% of households, 2,240 per million peopleIraq: 1.01% of households, 164 per million peopleItaly: 31.1% of households, 2,855 per million peopleJordan: 4.36% of households, 576 per million peopleJapan: 34.5% of households, 5,609 per million peopleKazakhstan: 15.5% of households, 758 per million peopleKenya: 19.4% of households, 384 per million peopleCambodia: 3.37% of households, 30.4 per million peopleKorea, Rep.: 31.8% of households, 9,472 per million peopleLesotho: 18% of households, 32.2 per million peopleLithuania: 31.7% of households, 3,704 per million peopleLuxembourg: 33.3% of households, 5,359 per million peopleLatvia: 41.1% of households, 2,191 per million peopleMacao SAR, China: 15.1% of households, 4,634 per million peopleMorocco: 7.2% of households, 1,083 per million peopleMoldova: 22.6% of households, 650 per million peopleMadagascar: 7.11% of households, 32.9 per million peopleMexico: 10.1% of households, 438 per million peopleNorth Macedonia: 11.8% of households, 888 per million peopleMali: 3.11% of households, 26 per million peopleMalta: 22.6% of households, 2,355 per million peopleMyanmar: 5.35% of households, 28 per million peopleMontenegro: 15.4% of households, 764 per million peopleMongolia: 8.96% of households, 535 per million peopleMozambique: 8.41% of households, 44.4 per million peopleMalawi: 7.2% of households, 25.2 per million peopleNamibia: 17.4% of households, 225 per million peopleNiger: 3.19% of households, 26.9 per million peopleNigeria: 14.7% of households, 22.1 per million peopleNorway: 39.6% of households, 7,451 per million peopleNew Zealand: 21.9% of households, 5,435 per million peoplePakistan: 1.08% of households, 474 per million peoplePanama: 13.4% of households, 250 per million peoplePhilippines: 9.18% of households, 320 per million peoplePoland: 24% of households, 3,675 per million peoplePuerto Rico (US): 23.1% of households, 332 per million peoplePortugal: 21.4% of households, 5,983 per million peopleParaguay: 10.4% of households, 139 per million peopleWest Bank and Gaza: 4.31% of households, 584 per million peopleQatar: 6.98% of households, 948 per million peopleRomania: 26% of households, 1,082 per million peopleRussian Federation: 25.7% of households, 2,639 per million peopleRwanda: 7.69% of households, 133 per million peopleSenegal: 6.92% of households, 572 per million peopleSingapore: 16.1% of households, 8,782 per million peopleEl Salvador: 8.46% of households, 55.5 per million peopleSerbia: 21.8% of households, 2,688 per million peopleSlovak Republic: 25.3% of households, 3,507 per million peopleSlovenia: 32.6% of households, 5,616 per million peopleEswatini: 21.7% of households, 138 per million peopleChad: 5.43% of households, 56.7 per million peopleTogo: 15.7% of households, 57.8 per million peopleThailand: 21.6% of households, 1,592 per million peopleTunisia: 6.27% of households, 1,668 per million peopleTanzania: 9.63% of households, 19.3 per million peopleUganda: 13.2% of households, 81.3 per million peopleUkraine: 25% of households, 586 per million peopleUruguay: 17.6% of households, 938 per million peopleUnited States: 27.9% of households, 4,937 per million peopleViet Nam: 10.5% of households, 836 per million peopleSouth Africa: 23.8% of households, 444 per million peopleZimbabwe: 12.9% of households, 95.1 per million peopleBLRFINHKGIRQKORLVAMLINORPAKSGPUKR

best-fit line line after adjusting

Four ways to measure the link

MethodrpCountries
Standard (Pearson), not adjusted+0.7042.9e-17107
By rank (Spearman), not adjusted+0.6835.0e-16107
Standard (Pearson), adjusted for national income+0.4578.4e-7107
By rank (Spearman), adjusted for national income+0.2340.016107

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 107 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: +0.246 (a minus sign means it grew).

How solid is it?

Leaving out one country at a time, r ranges from +0.424 (without FIN) to +0.516 (without SGP). 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: SGP (+0.058).

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 & Pacific15+0.65
Europe & Central Asia36+0.46
Latin America & Caribbean15+0.24
Sub-Saharan Africa26+0.02

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 third36-0.35
Middle third35+0.22
Richest third36+0.57

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
Christians70+0.52
Muslims22-0.23

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
France12-0.40
Spain15+0.22
United Kingdom27+0.39

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 = +0.487 after dropping 3 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 households
per million people		Years
Latvia LVA41.1%2,1912021, 2023
Finland FIN41%8,3152010, 2023
Norway NOR39.6%7,4512011, 2023
Belarus BLR38%1,5682019, 2024
Germany DEU37.3%5,9262011, 2023
Austria AUT36.3%6,6342011, 2023
France FRA35.5%5,3692015, 2023
Japan JPN34.5%5,6092015, 2023
Belgium BEL34%5,9902011, 2023
Luxembourg LUX33.3%5,3592011, 2023
Slovenia SVN32.6%5,6162015, 2023
Czechia CZE32.5%4,5052011, 2023
Hungary HUN32.1%4,5672011, 2023
Korea, Rep. KOR31.8%9,4722020, 2023
Lithuania LTU31.7%3,7042011, 2023

United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2022). Database on Household Size and Composition 2022.
World Bank, World Development Indicators

Sources

One-person households

Share of one-person households

United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division · via Our World in Data · CC BY 3.0 IGO · updated irregular (2017, 2019 and 2022 editions)

Households of one person, from the same UN collection as the single-parent share and with the same limits: one to three readings per country, from sources that sort households differently, and few after 2019. It rises with age and with income, and falls with family size. That is three different things in one number. No "better" direction is set.

Researchers

Researchers in R&D (per million people)

UNESCO Institute for Statistics · CC BY 4.0 · updated quarterly

Researchers counted as full-time equivalents (two half-time researchers count as one), from national research surveys that many countries run only now and then. So coverage is thin outside the OECD.

How this was computed

Data used: most recent value in 2010-2025; values come from 2010–2024. 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 One-person households and Researchers

This page shows that two measures go together. It does not show that One-person households changes Researchers, or the reverse. These figures also describe countries, not individual people. See the ecological fallacy.

More links with One-person households or Researchers