Choking deaths on food in the USDollar store locations in the US
As dollar stores have multiplied, choking deaths have risen, a correlation of 0.982 that adds discount retail to the choking death catalog. The Dollar Tree opens, the airway closes, and the chart draws a line between America's fastest-growing retail format and America's most age-dependent food hazard. Both are expanding into every corner of the country. Only one is a public health concern.
Dollar stores grew from about 16,000 to over 38,000 locations. Choking deaths rose with the aging population. Both are seventeen-year upward curves driven by different forces: dollar stores by economic inequality and convenience, choking by demographics. The coefficient is shape, as always.
Seventeen years of dollar stores and choking is a correlation between two things expanding across America at the same rate: cheap retail and geriatric risk. The store opens, the population ages, and the chart records both with the everyday low precision of a coefficient that does not check prices.
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Want to learn more about why correlations like “Choking deaths on food in the US” vs “Dollar store locations in the US” don't prove causation? Read our guide to statistical thinking.
