How many dead people are on the internet?

How many dead people are on the internet?

Author: BBC World Service September 18, 2026 Duration: 34:07

CrowdScience listener Devin in Canada has just had a baby. Worried that all the good email addresses might be taken by the time his child needs one, he has already set up an account. But it got him wondering: how many email addresses belong to people who have died?

From websites and blogs to email accounts, social media profiles, gaming avatars and even our conversations with AI, we’re all leaving behind a trail of digital footprints that can outlive us. So what happens to them when we die? Are they deleted, recycled or preserved? And who gets to decide?

Presenter Anand Jagatia travels beyond the digital veil and into the internet’s afterlife to find out.

Professor Edina Harbinja from the University of Birmingham Law School in the UK, an expert in ‘digital death’ and ‘post-mortem privacy’, explains how the law has struggled to keep pace with our digital lives. While it’s relatively straightforward to decide who inherits physical letters and photographs, what happens when those memories are stored in emails or on social media?

For artist Janilda Bartolemeu, encountering messages from her father on Facebook long after his death was like interacting with a ghost. Anand visits her artwork at IMPAKT gallery in Utrecht, Netherlands, part of the exhibition Data Never Dies, where curator Rosa Webers explores how art can help us understand the human impact of technology.

Finally, sociologist Professor Carl Öhman of Uppsala University in Sweden reveals that the number of dead people online will outnumber the living sooner than we might think. It raises profound questions about how we understand the internet, and ourselves within it.

Presenter: Anand Jagatia

Producer: Emily Knight

Editor: Ben Motley

(Photo: Grave on laptop computer, 3d render - stock photo Credit: Brankospejs via Getty Images)


Curiosity drives discovery, and CrowdScience from the BBC World Service is built entirely on that principle. Each episode begins not with a scripted lesson, but with a question sent in by a listener from anywhere in the world. These aren't simple queries with easy answers; they are the wonderfully complex, often quirky puzzles about everyday phenomena and cosmic mysteries that make us all stop and wonder. What does silence sound like? Could we ever photosynthesize like plants? How does a crowd's mood physically spread? The team then embarks on a genuine investigative journey, tracking down the specialists at the very edge of our understanding-neuroscientists, ecologists, physicists, and engineers-to piece together credible, compelling answers. Listening to this podcast feels like having a direct line to the labs and field sites where knowledge is being created. The conversations are deep yet accessible, transforming abstract concepts into relatable stories. It’s a collective exploration where listener curiosity sets the agenda, making each episode a unique and democratic look at the machinery of our world and beyond. You become part of a global community pondering life, Earth, and the universe, one thoughtful question at a time.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 50

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