Per capita bottled water consumption

Per capita bottled water consumption and Netflix original title releases have correlated at 0.97 across ten years, and if you watch enough Netflix you will absolutely drink more water, so this one might actually hold up. Netflix went from releasing 9 original titles in 2014 to over 500 by 2023. Americans drank more bottled water every single year. Both trends are relentless. Both are arguably hydrating.

Netflix's original content investment grew dramatically from 2014 onward as the company shifted from licensed content to owned IP, scaling from a handful of originals to hundreds annually as streaming wars intensified competition. Per capita bottled water consumption grew steadily as concerns about tap water quality, the decline of sugary sodas, and on-the-go hydration culture all pushed Americans toward bottled and canned water. Both are products of substantial corporate investment and shifting consumer behavior across the same decade, sharing the property of near-continuous upward growth.

Industries that invest heavily and grow fast tend to produce upward curves, and upward curves correlate with other upward curves. The data is not wrong; the inference of connection is.