Google Trends search interest in polymorphic light eruption and sunburn, 2016–2026: dataset and analysis code

This dataset contains monthly Google Trends relative search volume (0–100) for the topics "Polymorphous light eruption" (/m/08t1hs) and "Sunburn" (/m/015slp) in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, from January 2016 to October 2026. Data were extracted on 3 November 2026 (all categories, web search), with each topic and country queried separately. The Python script reproduces the analyses reported in the accompanying Letter to the Editor: cosinor models with Newey–West standard errors to estimate the month of peak interest, and baseline-adjusted spring-to-summer and autumn-to-summer ratios compared between polymorphic light eruption and sunburn with the Wilcoxon signed-rank test. New Zealand and South Africa were excluded from the analysis because more than 95% of their polymorphic light eruption months were zero. Files: PLE_sunburn_GoogleTrends_monthly_2016-2026.csv (data), analysis_PLE_sunburn.py (code), README.txt.