The Percentage Of 'Star Trek' Deaths By Shirt Color, Visualized

"Star Trek" fans use the term "redshirt" to refer to anonymous, expendable security guards and other low-level Starfleet employees who get killed on the series to move the plot along. But is the idea that characters in red shirts are most likely to die on "Star Trek" actually backed by data?

In order to see whether this trope actually holds water, Reddit user LodlopSeputhChakk has broken down all the characters who die in the "Star Trek" series by the color of shirt they're wearing:

Based on u/LodlopSeputhChakk's chart, red-shirt-wearing officers do indeed make up the largest percentage of deaths on the "Star Trek" series. Red shirt deaths, however, only lead by a small margin: red-shirted officers may claim 32.3% of "Star Trek" deaths, but officers wearing yellow shirts also take up 29.1%.

The close race between red and yellow shirt deaths may be explained by a uniform color change that occurred between series. While the security personnel of "The Original Series" wore red and the commanding officers wore gold, the colors were switched on "The Next Generation," according to "Star Trek" wiki Memory Alpha. 

And as YouTuber EC Henry has pointed out, it's actually not entirely accurate to assume red shirts have the highest fatality rates in Starfleet. If you look at the overall number of characters who wear red shirts in "The Original Series" and compare them to the ones who were killed off, redshirt characters actually have a higher survival rate than, say, characters wearing blue or gold shirts, who are much smaller in number.

[Via Reddit]