# How many people have been in space vs. Formula 1 drivers

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-have-been-in-space-vs-formula-1-drivers/481064>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [January 13, 2009, 9:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-have-been-in-space-vs-formula-1-drivers/481064 "2009-01-13T09:15:29Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![WormTheRed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/bbe5ce/32.png) [@WormTheRed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WormTheRed)\
**Post date:** [January 13, 2009, 9:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-have-been-in-space-vs-formula-1-drivers/481064/1 "2009-01-13T09:15:29Z")

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This [thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=501043), comparing how many people have been in Space compared to the North Pole got me thinking about a funny fact I’ve been throwing around as a truth:

More people have been in space, than have been Formula 1 drivers.

A quick Google check gives this number:

[Formula 1 drivers](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Formula_One_drivers): 799 drivers

[People in space](http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_many_people_have_been_in_space): 400-800 persons

Which proves my funny fact wrong ☹

But are those numbers true? And the thread that inspired my question has yet to answer how many people have actually been in space.

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**Author:** ![Santo\_Rugger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@Santo\_Rugger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Santo_Rugger)\
**Post date:** [January 13, 2009, 9:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-have-been-in-space-vs-formula-1-drivers/481064/2 "2009-01-13T09:55:13Z")

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A better cite for people in space is given [here](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_space_travelers_by_name). It claims just under 500.

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**Author:** ![WormTheRed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/bbe5ce/32.png) [@WormTheRed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WormTheRed)\
**Post date:** [January 13, 2009, 10:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-have-been-in-space-vs-formula-1-drivers/481064/3 "2009-01-13T10:14:45Z")

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Crap. I guess I’ll have to stop telling people that funny fact then ☹

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**Author:** ![Sapo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@Sapo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sapo)\
**Post date:** [January 13, 2009, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-have-been-in-space-vs-formula-1-drivers/481064/4 "2009-01-13T12:36:00Z")

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As a Formula One fan, I am really sorry your funny fact is turning out not to be true.

You own links show that although there are 799 F1 drivers, 65 of them never started a race, so you can bring that number down a little bit. You could also count only people who have driven an entire F1 Championship (a hard count to make in the early years of F1 when there wasn’t a championship circuit as there is today), which is, to me, a better count than that of random yahoos who have driven a F1 car by chance and circumstance.

Still, also from your own links, the number of people in space is only 489-495 depending on the definition, so that makes your case even harder.

Be patient, though. Formula One drivers are making longer and longer careers nowadays, and you can only drive a car with a long contract for many whole seasons, so the growth of that number is slower than it used to be. Space might still catch up and make F1 more exclusive.