US candle market retail sales

The American candle and the industrial robot have grown together between 2004 and 2022 (r = 0.958), with a conspicuous lack of apparent relationship that feels almost aggressive. One sits on a nightstand; one welds chassis in Shenyang. Both are, in the broadest possible sense, examples of a civilization that has developed an excess capacity for comfort and for work, and cannot decide which to pursue first.

US candle market retail sales grew from about $2.3 billion in 2004 to over $3.5 billion by 2022, a steady climb led by Bath & Body Works, Yankee Candle, and the Etsy-driven explosion of small-batch soy candles. Worldwide industrial robot installations grew from about 97,000 per year in 2004 to over 580,000 by 2022, with automotive and electronics leading early and general industry catching up after 2015. The two numbers have nothing to do with each other, but they both reflect the same 20-year industrial-and-consumer story: factories made more things, and homes lit more scented wax, and the same global economy paid for both.

The wick lights. The robot arm rotates. Both illuminate, at different scales, the year's progress.