# If EVERYTHING kills so much, how can population keep growing? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [February 22, 2003, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-everything-kills-so-much-how-can-population-keep-growing/156684 "2003-02-22T00:47:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![bluemoonz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c57346/32.png) [@bluemoonz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bluemoonz)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2003, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-everything-kills-so-much-how-can-population-keep-growing/156684/1 "2003-02-22T00:47:55Z")
I have noticed that everytime I read something about a disease or drugs or animal attacks - it is always the leading cause of death yada yada yada. My question is how can the population continue to grow when thousans of people die each day of every disease, drug, and killing thing known to man? ---
**Author:** ![Beagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/85f322/32.png) [@Beagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beagle)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2003, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-everything-kills-so-much-how-can-population-keep-growing/156684/2 "2003-02-22T00:56:51Z")
Sex conquers all. ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2003, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-everything-kills-so-much-how-can-population-keep-growing/156684/3 "2003-02-22T01:14:18Z")
ROTFLMAO! ---
**Author:** ![DreadCthulhu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/db5fbb/32.png) [@DreadCthulhu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DreadCthulhu)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2003, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-everything-kills-so-much-how-can-population-keep-growing/156684/4 "2003-02-22T04:20:36Z")
Simple, more people are born everyday than die. ---
**Author:** ![TVAA](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c57346/32.png) [@TVAA](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TVAA)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2003, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-everything-kills-so-much-how-can-population-keep-growing/156684/5 "2003-02-22T18:07:29Z")
When something is “the leading cause of death”, all that means is that it kills more people than other methods of. If only three people died a year, and two were killed by errant paperclips, then errant-paperclip-impalement would be the leading cause of death. ---
**Author:** ![ShoNuff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f04885/32.png) [@ShoNuff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShoNuff)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2003, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-everything-kills-so-much-how-can-population-keep-growing/156684/6 "2003-02-23T01:05:24Z")
The nice thing about being a live is that you only die once, but can create a whole lot of other people before hand. Procreation \> Death = Population Growth Pretty straight forward. ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2003, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-everything-kills-so-much-how-can-population-keep-growing/156684/7 "2003-02-23T01:12:05Z")
Furthermore, life expectancy tends to increase over time, meaning that a person of any given age has a lower chance of dying now, relative to, oh, 50 years ago, in most parts of the world. ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2003, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-everything-kills-so-much-how-can-population-keep-growing/156684/8 "2003-02-23T04:42:37Z")
[There is always a relevant Onion cite, isn’t there?](http://www.theonion.com/onion3102/deathrate.html) ---
**Author:** ![mindmirror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/bbe5ce/32.png) [@mindmirror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mindmirror)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2003, 8:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-everything-kills-so-much-how-can-population-keep-growing/156684/9 "2003-02-23T08:34:08Z")
More people are having sex than doing drugs, going to the zoo to get killed, or dying. I agree: sex conquers all. 😉