Inspired by this Dilbert cartoon, for a bit of fun I decided to plot GDP as a percentage of national debt (from here, using IMF data) against mathematical ability for 15 years a while ago (from here). I kept it to European countries on the basis they would be at similar stages of development. Is poor mathematical competence in 2003 correlated with debt ridden nations 8 years later as Dogbert suggests?
Well, the results are shown below. Unsurprisingly, the answer in general is ‘no’. However, the three countries with the highest levels of national debt as a percentage of GDP (Portugal, Italy and Greece) also have nearly the worst ranks of mathematical ability. So perhaps Dogbert just has a limited market of those who are really bad at mathematics.
In case it isn’t obvious, this is just a bit of fun, not a serious proposition. Remember kids, correlation does not imply causality.
The raw data is below for anyone interested. Countries not in Europe or without data in either source are excluded.
| Country | Debt as % GDP | Upper Rank | Lower Rank | Avg Rank |
| Luxembourg | 20.85 | 22 | 24 | 23 |
| Sweden | 37.44 | 15 | 19 | 17 |
| Latvia | 37.77 | 25 | 28 | 26.5 |
| Czech Republic | 41.46 | 12 | 17 | 14.5 |
| Denmark | 46.43 | 13 | 17 | 15 |
| Serbia | 47.89 | 32 | 34 | 33 |
| Finland | 48.56 | 1 | 4 | 2.5 |
| Switzerland | 48.65 | 6 | 12 | 9 |
| Norway | 49.61 | 21 | 24 | 22.5 |
| Poland | 55.39 | 22 | 26 | 24 |
| Netherlands | 66.23 | 2 | 7 | 4.5 |
| Spain | 68.47 | 25 | 28 | 26.5 |
| Austria | 72.20 | 16 | 20 | 18 |
| Hungary | 80.45 | 22 | 27 | 24.5 |
| Germany | 81.51 | 17 | 21 | 19 |
| France | 86.26 | 14 | 18 | 16 |
| Belgium | 98.51 | 5 | 10 | 7.5 |
| Iceland | 99.19 | 13 | 16 | 14.5 |
| Ireland | 104.95 | 17 | 21 | 19 |
| Portugal | 106.79 | 29 | 31 | 30 |
| Italy | 120.11 | 29 | 31 | 30 |
| Greece | 160.81 | 32 | 33 | 32.5 |
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