About Spurious
What is Spurious?
Spurious is a platform dedicated to making statistical literacy fun. We find surprising correlations between completely unrelated datasets — real data, ridiculous connections, zero causation.
Inspired by Tyler Vigen's legendary Spurious Correlations, we analyze hundreds of real-world datasets spanning food consumption, government statistics, celebrity metrics, health data, economic indicators, and more to surface the most hilarious and visually compelling coincidences.
How It Works
We collect publicly available time-series data from sources like the US Government, NOAA, Google Trends, sports databases, and financial markets. We then calculate the Pearson correlation coefficient between every possible pair of datasets, ranking results by statistical strength, visual interest, and entertainment value.
Every correlation you see on Spurious is calculated from real numbers. The “spurious” part is the implication that one thing caused the other — because correlation never implies causation, no matter how convincing the chart looks.
Our Data
We currently analyze over 300 datasets across 13 categories:
This produces over 16,000 statistically strong correlations (r ≥ 0.80), with the top 2,200 published as individual pages on this site.
FAQ
Is this data real?
Yes. All correlations are calculated from real, publicly available datasets. The relationships are genuine statistical correlations — the spurious part is assuming causation.
How are correlations calculated?
We use Pearson's correlation coefficient (r), which measures linear relationships between two variables on a scale from -1 to +1.
Can I suggest a dataset or correlation?
Absolutely! Email us at hello@getspurious.com with your ideas.
Is my data safe?
Any data processed for correlations runs locally in your browser. We don't collect or store personal data beyond standard analytics.
Contact
Email: hello@getspurious.com
App Store: Spurious on iOS