13 graphs that will make you think twice about statistics

How do you know two things in society are connected? Most people will point to a set of facts and figures, perhaps some official statistics. And from there, it's never long before someone invokes the age-old quote: "Lies, damned lies and statistics". Mark Twain attributed it to Benjamin Disraeli, but he may well in fact have made it up himself.

But the point is, if you're clever, you can use a misleading set of data to suggest just about anything. Would you believe that an increase in per capita consumption of mozzarella cheese has anything to do with the number of degrees gained in civil engineering? What about if you saw a chart suggesting a strong link between the two?

Harvard law student Tyler Vigen has assembled dozens of data sets which appear to show surreal connections between different events or statistical trends - highlighting how easy it is to draw false conclusions between two unrelated sets of facts. Here are thirteen of our favourites.

1. Beef consumption vs Deaths by lightning

When Americans eat more beef, more of them are killed by lightning strikes. Does a high-beef diet increase electrical conductivity? Maybe it's time spent queuing outside steak restaurants in thunderstorms? Or divine retribution for their greed?

2. Nicholas Cage vs Female editors

The works of Nicholas Cage will doubtless be studied by film scholars for generations; not least for their impact on society at large. It's notable, for instance, that his busiest periods coincided with the highest number of female editors on the Harvard Law review. Isn't it?

3. Divorce rates vs Margarine consumption

Thousands of column inches and hundreds of books have been dedicated to the secrets of a healthy marriage. In Maine, it turns out that the answer is simple - eat less margarine!

4. Mozzarella consumption vs Civil engineering

Here's a food fad that lifestyle magazines have somehow missed over the past fourteen years - eating more mozzarella encourages students to study civil engineering.

5. Bedsheet-related deaths vs Ski resort revenue

The immediate dangers of skiing are fairly obvious. But I bet you were unaware of the hidden risk associated with the success of ski resorts - death by bedsheet entanglement.

6. Cheese consumption vs Bedsheet deaths

Or maybe it's not skiing at all but the amount of cheese people eat that's causing this tragic rise in bedsheet deaths. The two are visibly linked, after all.

7. Space launches vs Sociology degrees

NASA's space programme has had so, so many knock-on beneficial effects on the wider world. Less well documented, however, is the impact that non-commercial spaceflight has on the number of sociology graduates.

8. Bees vs Marijuana arrests

You know who doesn't like drugs? Bees. As cannabis arrests have gone up, bee populations have sunk sharply. Save the bees - smoke less weed! That's like, profound, man.

9. Maths degrees vs Pedestrian deaths

Another compelling case of inverse correlation (when one goes up, the other goes down): it turns out that the more of the population has a maths doctorate, the fewer pedestrians get killed by cars or vans. Clearly, mathematicians remember the green cross code better than most.

10. Pampered pets vs Successful lawyers

This is an interesting one. Spend a lot of money on pets, and the California legal industry booms. Are expensive, pampered pets involved in more lawsuits? Maybe it's the other way round - well-paid lawyers are the ones rewarding themselves with pet purchases. Fat cats for the fat cats, as it were.

11. Suicides by alcohol vs Cost of crisps

You might have recognised that the size of crisp packets shrinks, and yet the cost goes up, every year. Sadly, the news is hitting some people harder than others - according to this data, anyway. Alcohol-related suicides are strongly linked to the price of crisps - you heard it here first.

12. Arcade games vs Computer science doctorates

This one actually seems to make some sense. More computer science graduates = more money spent in games arcades? Probably.

13. Visual art vs Women falling to their death

Last but certainly not least: it appears the physical stability of women in New York is directly, firmly, linked to the creativity of the general populace. So if you're an artist, remember that every piece of visual art you copyright helps prevent a woman in NY dying from falling over. That's the power of statistics.