US pet industry spending

Between 2016 and 2023, humanity put more satellites in orbit and Americans spent more on their dogs and cats, and the two curves climbed together (r = 0.958) in a way that defies tidy summary but feels, somehow, very 2020s. The constellation expands above; the kibble bowl fills below. Both are described, by people who should know better, as 'exponential.' Neither is, strictly, but close enough.

Worldwide satellite launches grew from about 221 in 2016 to over 2,400 in 2023, with Starlink alone accounting for more than half of the 2023 number; US pet industry spending climbed from $66 billion to over $147 billion, with pet food, veterinary care, and the suddenly-enormous pet insurance category all contributing. Both are consequences of the same venture-and-discretionary-capital environment of the late 2010s and early 2020s: money moved toward ambitious categories that had previously been dominated by slow incumbents, and both the aerospace industry and the pet care industry discovered they were more venture-fundable than they'd believed.

A satellite joins the constellation. A retriever receives a dental cleaning. Both are attended to, seriously, on the same decade.