US population using the internet

As more Americans have gotten online, more of them have been killed while walking, a correlation that is either a commentary on distracted walking or a reminder that internet adoption and pedestrian fatalities both track population growth without needing any help from WiFi. The coefficient is 0.856 across twenty-one years, during which the internet went from something you used on a desktop to something that follows you into traffic. The browser loads, the pedestrian does not look up, and the crosswalk light changes without either of them noticing.

US internet usage grew from about 63 percent of the population in 2002 to over 95 percent by 2022, with the most significant shift being the smartphone revolution that put the internet in every pocket starting around 2007. Pedestrian fatalities grew from about 4,800 to over 7,500. The smartphone is the actual mechanistic link here: it provides the internet access that drives adoption numbers and it distracts both drivers and pedestrians, contributing directly to the fatality increase. This is one of the less spurious correlations on the site—the same device that measures one variable actively contributes to the other.

Twenty-one years of internet adoption and pedestrian deaths growing together is a correlation that contains more genuine mechanism than most. The phone delivers the internet and delivers the distraction, and the pedestrian navigates both. The connection is not just statistical—it is rectangular, fits in your pocket, and you are probably looking at it right now.