Explaining the celebrity deaths of 2016

It’s safe to say that many people have been less than impressed with the past year – one of the reasons for this was the sheer amount of celebrity deaths. With iconic figures ranging from David Bowie to Alan Rickman, Prince to Mohammed Ali and Sir Terry Wogan to John Glenn all passing away, it seemed as though you couldn’t turn on the news without someone famous having died (there aren’t any numbers because of the difficulty of defining celebrity, but it’s estimated at around 300). But is there any scientific reason why this should have happened?

For a start, it’s worth examining the scale of deaths. We estimate around 300 deaths so far in 2016 – estimates of the celebrity death toll in 2015 and 2014 are 125 and 90 respectively. By the end of April, the Daily Telegraph had 75 faces in its gallery of famous deaths (as compared to 38 in 2014 and 30 in 2014 in the same period). And one last point – every year, the BBC produces a compilation of obituaries. Normally, this is a half-hour programme, but it has had to be extended to an hour just to cope with the volume of deaths.

More celebrities should be dying because there are more to die

There are two main factors to explain the number of celebrity deaths – first, we must talk about baby boomers. After the Second World War, many Western countries saw a noticeable increase in birth rates (approximately between 1946 and 1964). This generation of babies, now aged between 52 and 70, makes up a substantial part of the population (nearly a quarter in both America and the UK), and therefore a considerable number of celebrities in their ranks. The average life expectancy in the UK and USA is 71.4 and 69.1 respectively, and the 65-69 age bracket sees the death rates really start to rise. Both Rickman and Bowie were 69 when they died.

Also of note is the shifting idea of celebrity, and the presence of social media. Nowadays, there are more celebrities than before, and the proliferation of the internet and social media devices has made it far easier to hear news of whether someone has died than at any point in the past. At the literal conception of the baby boomers, the biggest stars were found in the cinema or the theatre – today, anybody who was ever in the public eye can be deemed a celebrity, coupled with the ability to become famous from your own home, making the number of celebrities (from A- to Z-list) far higher. It is a logical jump that more celebrities should be dying because there are more to die.

Sadly, the science suggests this should continue – the boomers will be reaching their eighties, and increasingly likely to pass away. Coupled with the ever-growing celebrity ranks and the surprise deaths (like Anton Yelchin this year, who suffered a tragic motoring accident), and we may need to start digging the grave plots for 2017.