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The Types Of Notable People That Newspaper Crosswords Mention The Most, Visualized

The Types Of Notable People That Newspaper Crosswords Mention The Most, Visualized
Over the past century, film and TV stars have dominated all but two publications from around the world when it comes to crossword clues.
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Crossword Solver cross-checked two large databases to see which kinds of famous people are commonly featured in newspaper crosswords. They first looked at a list of 2.2 million famous people and their notable categories, then analyzed a collection of 6.3 million newspaper crossword clues from 62 different publications.

In cases where a famous person's name was also shared with a popular fictional character (like James Bond, the name of both a spy and an ornithologist), the name was omitted from the analysis. After looking at roughly 100 years' worth of crossword data, here's what they found.


Key Takeaways:

  • Individuals from the film and TV world are the most represented type of notable person in crossword clues. Over the past 100 years, they've come to make up just under one-third of the total share.

  • Explorers, inventors and individuals from the legal and religious sectors were among the least represented, cumulatively making up less than three percent.

  • The Sun, from the UK, and The New Yorker, from the US, were the only two publications whose most featured type of person was musician, and not someone from film or TV.


Click to enlarge images

What Types of People Do Newspapers Mention on Their Crosswords? pie cha

What Types of People per Newspapers in Crosswords? pie chart

nyt crossword historical breakdown chart


Via Crossword Solver.

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