Which comes first, getting divorced or Googling “vasectomy reversal”?

Quick follow up to the last post on the new 2011 divorce data.

I just noticed that the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey release included a calculation of the divorce rate, calculated as the number of divorces in the last 12 months per 1,000 people age 15+, with a table listing them by state (Factfinder tables GCT1253 and GCT1254).

They did it for men and women, and the rates are a little different, so I averaged them. Then, the first step in the research process is to run the state rates through Google Correlate…

Of the top 100 searches most correlated with divorce rates — that is, searches that are most common where there are more divorces, and least common where there are few divorces — about 99 of them are about guns, military paraphernalia, survivalist stuff, etc.

And then, right between “radio software” and “shotgun pistol” there is “vasectomy reversal.” I am not making this up:

That’s the divorce rate on the left, and the “vasectomy reversal” searches on the right. It’s a correlation of .79 — pretty good.

Here are the other things on the list, all correlated with the divorce rate at between .77 and .84.