Relationship Between Cars Per Person, Co2 Emissions Per Capita and Gdp Per Capita

Executive Summary

The following report studies the relationship between the GDP per capita, number of cars per capita and carbon dioxide emissions per capita. The three main statistical analysis methods used are correlation, regression and scatter plot diagrams.

Introduction

In the report statistical analysis is made between the number of passenger cars per capita and CO2 emissions in a list of 12 countries. This way it will show whether countries that have more cars per person necessarily produce more carbon dioxide gasses per person and therefore have higher contribution to the worldwide air pollution. Furthermore it compares the GDP per capita with the number of passenger cars per person to indicate whether wealthier countries have more cars than poorer countries based on their GDP per capita.

Data collection and analysis

The list of 12 countries is randomly selected from a larger list that consists in total of 18 countries. The data used in the report has been standardised for the year of 2009 and all units are converted into per capita values so that the risk of error due to unit differences can be avoided. The carbon dioxide values are taken from The Guardian's website, the GDP per capita values are taken from a Greek online database and the passenger cars per capita are calculated from the website of the World Bank which provides the information per 1000 people and the values are divided by 1000 in order to receive the per capita rates. All three are considered as reliable resources.

Sample data shown in table form

Table 1 provides the data values which are used throughout the report for the different statistical analysis methods. Table 2 provides the descriptive statistics of the three different columns in Table 1. Furthermore the bold figures in Table 1 represent all the values above the median and the italics represent all the values below the median.

Table 1.

Country GDP p.c. 2009 $ Passenger cars per 1000 persons 2009 Carbon dioxide emissions per capita 2009

Australia 38 100 0,55 19,64

Brazil 10 100 0,178 2,11

Canada 39 300 0,42 16,15

China 6 000 0,034 5,83

France 32 700 0,496 6,3

Germany 34 800 0,51 9,3

India 2 800 0,012 1,38

Italy 31 000 0,596 7,01

Japan 34 200 0,454 8,64

Russia 15 800 0,233 11,23

UK 36 600 0,46 8,35

USA 47 000 0,439 17,67

Table 2.

GDP p.c. 2009 (dollars) Passenger cars per capita 2009 CO2 emissions per capita 2009

Mean 27366,6667 Mean 0,365166667 Mean 9,4675

Standard Error 4231,82985 Standard Error 0,057589303 Standard Error 1,67270608

Median 33450 Median 0,4465 Median 8,495

Standard Deviation 14659,4886 Standard Deviation 0,199495196 Standard Deviation 5,79442385

Sample Variance 214900606 Sample Variance 0,039798333 Sample Variance 33,5753477

Kurtosis -1,0475651 Kurtosis -0,647032725 Kurtosis -0,5721665

Skewness -0,6598744 Skewness -0,868666296 Skewness 0,4959275

Range 44200 Range 0,584 Range 18,26

Minimum 2800 Minimum 0,012 Minimum 1,38

Maximum 47000 Maximum 0,596 Maximum 19,64

Sum 328400 Sum 4,382 Sum 113,61

Count 12 Count 12 Count 12

Analysis

The statistical technique used to examine the data is correlation. The correlation index which varies from 1 to -1 expresses the strength of the relationship and whether it is positive or negative.

The first relationship that will be examined is the one between Passenger cars per capita and carbon dioxide emissions