Per capita bottled water consumptionUS bowling centers
As per-capita bottled water consumption rose between 2014 and 2022, the number of bowling centers in America fell, yielding a negative correlation of -0.9736 that raises urgent questions about whether hydration is somehow hostile to duck-pin architecture. One theory holds that every time an American chooses a $4 bottle of water over a $4 bowling game, a lane goes dark. This theory is almost certainly wrong, but it has a satisfying symmetry.
Bottled water consumption grew from around 38 gallons per capita in 2014 to over 45 gallons by 2022, part of a long beverage-category shift away from carbonated soft drinks. Bowling center counts fell from roughly 4,700 to under 4,000 over the same period, continuing a multi-decade contraction driven by real estate pressures, changing entertainment preferences, and the aging of the Baby Boomer cohort that built bowling culture. The negative correlation is simply a function of one thing going up and one thing going down over the same nine years — two separate trends with separate causes that happen to share an axis.
The most statistically reliable way to find a strong correlation is to pair anything that is rising with anything that is falling over the same window. The number will be impressive; the meaning will be absent.
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Want to learn more about why correlations like “Per capita bottled water consumption” vs “US bowling centers” don't prove causation? Read our guide to statistical thinking.
