Swimming pool drowning deaths in the US

As Americans have drunk more coffee per capita, fewer of them have drowned in swimming pools, a correlation that either credits caffeine with improved aquatic alertness or acknowledges that the same cultural shift toward health consciousness that drives specialty coffee also drives pool safety. The coefficient is -0.852 across seventeen years, during which the nation got more caffeinated and less drowned, a combination that sounds like a public health victory nobody designed.

Home coffee consumption rose sharply in 2020 as the morning commute disappeared and kitchen espresso machines became the new breakroom, while the same backyard-summer saw pool drownings tick upward. Both series record the shape of a household that wasn't leaving the house, for better or worse.

Seventeen years of more coffee and fewer drownings is a correlation that captures the lifestyle of the American upper-middle class: caffeinated, supervised, and safety-compliant. The espresso pulls, the pool gate latches, and the demographic that does both is simply taking care of itself with characteristic thoroughness. The coffee is third-wave. The pool fence is regulation.