US GDP per capita

As US GDP per capita has grown, the number of trained Catholic exorcists has increased, a correlation of 0.986 that suggests either that prosperity breeds demonic activity or that a wealthier nation can afford more specialized spiritual services. The GDP climbs, the exorcists train, and the chart draws a line between macroeconomics and the metaphysical with the confident secularism of a coefficient that has never attended Mass.

GDP per capita grew from about $42,000 to over $70,000 between 2005 and 2021. Exorcists grew from 12 to over 175. Both are smooth upward curves driven by different forces: GDP by economic growth, exorcists by Vatican institutional expansion. The connection, if any, is indirect: a wealthier Church in a wealthier nation can fund more training programs. But the primary driver of exorcist growth is demand-side—the Vatican expanded programs because dioceses reported more requests—not supply-side economics.

Nine years of GDP and exorcists is a correlation that accidentally raises a real question: does prosperity produce the conditions that increase demand for spiritual intervention? The data says nothing definitive, but the coefficient is 0.986, and the chart makes no distinction between economic growth and spiritual warfare. The economy expands, the rite is performed, and the correlation is as rich as it is unexplained.