A Study into the Demographics Having the Greatest Carbon Footprint

Our aim was to determine factors predicting greenhouse gas emissions per capita and to identify the demographics having the greatest carbon footprint. The relationship between socioeconomic trends and greenhouse gas emissions is controversial, given that many past studies evaluated only a single factor. We analyzed the relationship between global greenhouse gas emissions per capita and literacy rate, GDP per capita, urban population percentage, adolescent fertility rate, unemployment percentage, percent of agricultural land, research and development expenditure, renewable energy consumption, food production, population growth, mobile cellular subscriptions, air transport freight, and forest area. We gathered data from 217 countries spanning a period of 20 years; 1993 to 2012. We analyzed the data using multiple regression models. We concluded food production, renewable energy consumption, air transport, mobile cellular subscriptions, literacy rate, and population growth have the greatest impact on predicting greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in our model, suggesting the demographic with the greatest carbon footprint are wealthy, educated people living in urban centers.