<p>Most of the remnants are white dwarfs, because their progenitors can be much shorter lived than the lifetime of the galaxy and are much more numerous than the higher mass progenitors of neutron stars and black holes.</p>
<p>A census of the local neighborhood suggests that about 10% of &quot;stars&quot; are white dwarfs. This number is low because (a) only stars more massive than about <span class="math-container">$1M_\odot$</span> have had time to become white dwarfs and (b) the birth stellar mass distribution is heavily weighted to stars less massive than this.</p>
<p>Extrapolation of this birth stellar mass function to estimate the numbers of stars born with <span class="math-container">$M&gt;8M_\odot$</span> (almost none of which are still on the main sequence now) suggests there are a further <span class="math-container">$\sim 1$</span>% of neutron stars and <span class="math-container">$\sim 0.1$</span>% black holes, though these fractions remain to be observationally confirmed and the latter number is very uncertain even as a theoretical calculation.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-02-22T23:58:33.713Z
2021-02-22T23:58:33.713Z
ProfRob
<p>According to <a href="https://astronomy.stackexchange.com/questions/36421/what-is-the-composition-of-the-universe-in-terms-of-types-of-stars">this post,</a> I found that about 90% of all stars are main sequence stars. So I am assuming that the other 10% consists of protostars, older giant stars, and stellar remnants. So I'm wondering how much of the stellar population is dead (i.e. turned into a remnant, excluding supernova progenitors that blow apart the whole star without leaving anything behind)?</p>

<star><supernova><stellar-remnants>
What percent of all stars that have lived (up to now) are stellar remnants?
slowerthanstopped
# What percent of all stars that have lived (up to now) are stellar remnants?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2021-02-22)

According to [this post,](https://astronomy.stackexchange.com/questions/36421/what-is-the-composition-of-the-universe-in-terms-of-types-of-stars) I found that about 90% of all stars are main sequence stars. So I am assuming that the other 10% consists of protostars, older giant stars, and stellar remnants. So I'm wondering how much of the stellar population is dead (i.e. turned into a remnant, excluding supernova progenitors that blow apart the whole star without leaving anything behind)?

**Tags:** star, supernova, stellar-remnants


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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2021-02-22. Score: 3 | Accepted answer

Most of the remnants are white dwarfs, because their progenitors can be much shorter lived than the lifetime of the galaxy and are much more numerous than the higher mass progenitors of neutron stars and black holes.

A census of the local neighborhood suggests that about 10% of "stars" are white dwarfs. This number is low because (a) only stars more massive than about $1M\_\odot$ have had time to become white dwarfs and (b) the birth stellar mass distribution is heavily weighted to stars less massive than this.

Extrapolation of this birth stellar mass function to estimate the numbers of stars born with $M>8M\_\odot$ (almost none of which are still on the main sequence now) suggests there are a further $\sim 1$% of neutron stars and $\sim 0.1$% black holes, though these fractions remain to be observationally confirmed and the latter number is very uncertain even as a theoretical calculation.


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