# Where are all the dead people? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 15, 2005, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-all-the-dead-people/331216 "2005-11-15T21:03:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Maastricht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e57/32.png) [@Maastricht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maastricht)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2005, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-all-the-dead-people/331216/21 "2005-11-16T12:16:30Z")
> [@MLS](#): > > There are vast catacombs under Paris consisting of stacks and stacks of bones from prior burials. Correct. IIRC from my visit to the [Paris catacombs](http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paris/cata/), the majority of the stacked bones in the catacombs date from around 1770, at the last major clear-out of Paris’s poorer cemetaries. The bones of some 5-6 million people are stacked there, so that’s 5 million of dead Parisians from before 1770 already accounted for. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Pushkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2005, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-all-the-dead-people/331216/22 "2005-11-16T12:51:53Z")
> [@naita](#): > > You ‘remember’ correctly, but your sourc(es) are wrong. Or so say the experts: [http://www.snopes.com/science/stats/dead.htm](http://www.snopes.com/science/stats/dead.htm) Thanks for the link, I was going to hijack the thread to ask this 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![AWB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bb73d2/32.png) [@AWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AWB)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2005, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-all-the-dead-people/331216/23 "2005-11-16T13:21:53Z")
If all the world’s current population (~6 billion) gathered in one area and stood in adjoining 1 sq meter boxes, they only cover a square about 50 miles on each side. So if all the world’s people could stand in the state of Rhode Island, I’m sure all those that have passed would fit in an area not too much bigger. Certainly not overwhelming. ---
**Author:** ![chrisk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@chrisk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chrisk)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2005, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-all-the-dead-people/331216/24 "2005-11-16T13:45:49Z")
Since we’re talking about the number of people who have ever lived and died on earth, I’ll through this quote in. The numbers might not be accurate anymore, but it’s cool nonetheless: -“Behind every man now alive stand thirty ghosts, for that is the ratio by which the dead outnumber the living. Since the dawn of time, roughly a hundred billion human beings have walked the planet Earth. –Now this is an interesting number, for by a curious coincidence there are approximately a hundred billion stars in our local universe, the Milky Way. So for every man who has ever lived, in this universe, there shines a star.” (from Clarke’s foreword in 2001, A Space Odyssey, 1968) ---
**Author:** ![Bookkeeper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bookkeeper/32/281_2.png) [@Bookkeeper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bookkeeper)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2005, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-all-the-dead-people/331216/25 "2005-11-16T16:30:31Z")
> [@AWB](#): > > If all the world’s current population (~6 billion) gathered in one area and stood in adjoining 1 sq meter boxes, they only cover a square about 50 miles on each side. > > So if all the world’s people could stand in the state of Rhode Island, I’m sure all those that have passed would fit in an area not too much bigger. Certainly not overwhelming. Or on Zanzibar. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2005, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-all-the-dead-people/331216/26 "2005-11-16T16:47:53Z")
> [@Maastricht](#): > > Correct. IIRC from my visit to the [Paris catacombs](http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paris/cata/), the majority of the stacked bones in the catacombs date from around 1770, at the last major clear-out of Paris’s poorer cemetaries. The bones of some 5-6 million people are stacked there, so that’s 5 million of dead Parisians from before 1770 already accounted for. 🙂 And there are “ossuaries” like that in other parts of Europe, some with bones arranged in artistic fashion. I’ve visited such sites in [the Czech Republic](http://www.kostnice.cz/text.htm) and [Portugal](http://www.krysstal.com/ctq40.html) (click links for photos). ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2005, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-all-the-dead-people/331216/27 "2005-11-16T20:51:48Z")
> [@robby](#): > > For a Boy Scout project, I once renovated a small century-old community cemetery in Tennessee. Man, you had it easy. When I was in scouting, we had to embalm someone to get our death badge. ---
**Author:** ![Blake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2005, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-all-the-dead-people/331216/28 "2005-11-16T22:00:55Z")
> [@Cervaise](#): > > Man, you had it easy. When I was in scouting, we had to embalm someone to get our death badge. Luxury. We had to inhume someone to get our death badge. ---
**Author:** ![priapus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed655f/32.png) [@priapus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/priapus)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2005, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-all-the-dead-people/331216/29 "2005-11-16T22:38:44Z")
I like to think I have 5 gallons of dead people in my gas tank right now [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-all-the-dead-people/331216.md?page=1)