Choking deaths on food in the US

As Americans have spent more money eating pizza in restaurants, more Americans have choked to death on food, a correlation that is uncomfortably specific and probably says more about the speed at which Americans eat than about the aerodynamic properties of mozzarella. The coefficient is 0.929 across seventeen years, during which both metrics rose with the steady confidence of a nation that eats quickly, eats often, and occasionally eats too much at once. The pizza is not the problem. The pace might be.

Choking deaths on food in the US hover around 5,000 per year and have risen modestly as the population has aged—the vast majority of food choking deaths occur in people over 65, and the US population over 65 grew from about 37 million to 56 million between 2005 and 2021. Pizza restaurant spending grew from roughly 38 billion to over 60 billion during the same period, driven by population growth, delivery app proliferation, and inflation. Both metrics are being pushed upward by the same demographic and economic forces: more people, more food consumption, and an aging population that is statistically more vulnerable to choking. Pizza specifically is not a significant choking hazard; the correlation is simply two measures of a growing, aging, eating nation.

Seventeen years of pizza spending and choking deaths rising together is a correlation that sounds alarming until you realize both are simply measuring the same growing, aging population eating more food of all kinds. The pizza is innocent, the demographics are inexorable, and the Heimlich maneuver remains the best response to both the data and the emergency.