  We present an extensive comparative study of ground-state densities and pair
distribution functions for electrons confined in two-dimensional parabolic
quantum dots over a broad range of coupling strength and electron number. We
first use spin-density-functional theory to determine spin densities that are
compared with Diffusion Monte Carlo (DMC) data. This accurate knowledge of
one-body properties is then used to construct and test a local approximation
for the electron-pair correlations. We find very satisfactory agreement between
this local scheme and the available DMC data, and provide a detailed picture of
two-body correlations in a coupling-strength regime preceding the formation of
Wigner-like electron ordering.
