24 February 2024

By The Numbers - part the forty eighth

"Wait, Wait... Don't Tell Me!" just finished up, and ran some of their usual non-commercials, of which BritBox was one. And said blurb listed "Death in Paradise" as a reason to pony up the moolah. Fortunately, one can watch the show, somewhat delayed, on PBS; at least so far. According to the wiki there are 8 regular episodes per season/year and for the last 3 years, a Christmas special; a Christmas murder does sound a bit macabre, of course.

That works out to be 9 murders per year. Now, the population of the fictional Saint Marie is said to be about 10,000. The audience doesn't know how many other murders happen in the remaining 43 weeks of the year, but what's the number of murders, and population, of the real island, Guadeloupe, where the show is produced? Enquiring minds needs to know.

Population - 378,561 (2024)
Murders - 45 (2015)

Saint Marie murder rate (not annualized) 9/10,000 = .09%
Saint Marie murder rate (annualized, assuming of course that the citizens are always bloodthirsty) 52/10,000 = .52%

Guadeloupe murder rate = .01%

Just don't set foot in Saint Marie!!

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