Ecological Footprint under the lens: A bibliometric coupling analysis of institutional and socioeconomic factors

• The Ecological Footprint measures planetary sustainability and policy. • Institutional impacts on the Ecological Footprint are underexplored. • Global trends are mapped via bibliometric analysis with VOSviewer. • Institutional factors are pivotal drivers for future sustainability research. The Ecological Footprint (EF) is a vital metric for assessing the evolution of global sustainability, but its underlying factors are complex and interwoven. This study employs bibliometric analysis to map the vast academic landscape exploring how socioeconomic and institutional factors may influence the EF. By analyzing 929 publications from 1992–2025 using VOS Viewer and RStudio software, we visualize the evolution of key themes, major contributing countries, leading authors, and core journals. Results show that while research on economic drivers like GDP and energy use is prevalent, the role of institutional factors, such as governance quality and political stability, is increasingly recognized as fundamental yet requires greater attention. The findings provide a clear roadmap for academic scholars, highlighting the need to integrate institutional analyses with traditional economic models to better understand and mitigate ecological degradation.