§ Dr. Roger Thomasasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer, for the latest available year, what is the correlation coefficient between the gross national product at market prices per capita and the size of population for the countries of Western Europe.
§ Mr. BrittanFigures for gross national product are not readily available, but there is no evidence of relationship between gross domestic product at market prices per capita and size of population. Taking the countries of Western Europe and converting national currencies to US dollars by exchange rates, the correlation coefficient between GDP per capita in 1979 and population is —0.15. For the nine member countries of the European Community, using estimates of GDP expressed in purchasing power standards, the corresponding correlation coefficient is +0.04. Neither of these coefficients is statistically significant.