# Do people often die after they reach significant numbers?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-often-die-after-they-reach-significant-numbers/703206>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 1, 2014, 9:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-often-die-after-they-reach-significant-numbers/703206 "2014-11-01T09:17:53Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Immemorium](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/6bbea6/32.png) [@Immemorium](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Immemorium)\
**Post date:** [November 1, 2014, 9:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-often-die-after-they-reach-significant-numbers/703206/1 "2014-11-01T09:17:53Z")

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Funnily enough I was reading [another SD thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=707858) and followed through [the links](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Schwerte#Public_discovery) of how this german nazi who made another life in America after the war and who was discovered fifty years later at age 86 (to obvious embarrassment and other difficulties), died only 3 days after his 90th birthday.

It got me thinking. Is it fairly common for people to die right after a significant ‘number’ (it’d be interesting if 100 is fairly common!), as if the will to live until certain milestones keep them going and then the will to live is simply less after that number (maybe even a ‘release’ from said previous will), pretty much making them lose it and subsequently dying?

If the trait is quite common then there’s something to learn from that…

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**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\
**Post date:** [November 1, 2014, 9:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-often-die-after-they-reach-significant-numbers/703206/2 "2014-11-01T09:30:38Z")

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This study of 2.5 million deaths, although the effect in the article heading appear to be due to record keeping errors, appears to be decent evidence that they don’t. There’s a peak for your birthday, but no dip before, and no peak after. The peak on your birthday can be explained away as record keeping errors, but that shouldn’t influence the frequency of death on any other dates.

[Are you more likely to die on your birthday.](http://www.bbc.com/news/world-18626157)

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**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\
**Post date:** [November 1, 2014, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-often-die-after-they-reach-significant-numbers/703206/3 "2014-11-01T12:16:38Z")

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Thomas Jefferson and John Adams both died on the fourth of July, 1826.  
They were a bit unusual though.