Experts are agreed that 2016 has seen an unusually high number of celebrity deaths and say there are a combination of factors which could explain the phenomenon.

Prince was the latest of a number of high-profile deaths, all in the past few months.

A change in the perception of fame, better global communications and old-fashioned sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll could all be factors, experts say.

The BBC website published 24 obituaries between January 1 and late March 2016, compared with just five in the same period in 2012, a five-fold increase. Each year website deathlist.net predicts 50 celebrities will die.

In six of the previous 10 years two or fewer passed away, but this year five have died so far. Experts say one reason for the spike is that the people dying are part of the baby boomer generation.

There are simply a greater number of famous people reaching a more fragile age. In addition since the 1960s, more and more people have achieved fame as the world has become more global, meaning there is a greater pool of celebrities “available” to die.

Dr Lee Barron, lecturer in media at Northumbria University, said: “People who made their names say in the 1960s are now reaching their 70s and 80s and are dying off, so there’s a natural element.

“Then there is the change in the nature of celebrity. You have stars of social media – the spectrum of celebrities has increased exponentially.”

Dr Gezim Alpion, a sociologist from Birmingham University, added: “The number of celebrities has grown hugely since the 1960s.

“We have far more celebrities than we used to.”

Another factor is that news of international deaths also spreads far more quickly.

When wrestler Chyna passed away last week 400,000 tweets shared the news around the globe. Ten years ago many simply wouldn’t have known about it.

Dr Barron added: “We are made much more aware of these deaths when they happen. There’s Facebook and Twitter.”

Jem Aswad, an editor at the music chart Billboard, believes fast living may be playing its part.

He said: “They’re all hitting their 70s. And given the era, there were a lot of drugs and a lot of cigarette smoking and being a touring musician performing every single night takes its toll on you.”

(Source: express.co.uk)