US cigarette consumptionCristiano Ronaldo goals per calendar year
American cigarette consumption falling as Cristiano Ronaldo's annual goal count rises. Two completely unrelated American and global trends on opposite sides of the regression line: one a public-health curve, one an athletic-output count.
US cigarette consumption fell by roughly a third between 2004 and 2015 thanks to taxation, smoking bans, and a long generational shift. Cristiano Ronaldo's calendar-year goals climbed from a few dozen per year early in his career to a peak of 60 in 2013, with averages well above career-norm goalscoring. Two completely unrelated lines on opposite trajectories sharing a window because the same twelve years saw both a US public-health improvement and one athlete's peak output.
Different fields, different fates. One country quit; one player kept scoring.
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Want to learn more about why correlations like “US cigarette consumption” vs “Cristiano Ronaldo goals per calendar year” don't prove causation? Read our guide to statistical thinking.
