Unusual Uptake in Celebrity Deaths in 2016

Prince’s death on Thursday was just one of many blows to the world of celebrities this year. He was just 57 when he died of yet unspecified causes. Country music’s Merle Haggard also died in April. Before those two, the music world had to fathom the death of well-respected artist David Bowie.

Those are just two examples taken from arts & entertainment. The BBC has drawn up some numbers and come to the conclusion that 2016 actually is a record year for celebrity deaths. There have been more prewritten obituaries taken from its archives to be published across the network’s outlets than in previous years.

While in 2012 there were only 5 such instances between January 1 and March 31, in the same time period this year, there were already 24 referrals to the obituary archive. This means that those who passed away in April, like Prince, don’t yet show up in the statistic.