It turns out the dead aren’t the biggest threat to humanity on the AMC series.
Obviously; although zombies or “walkers” are definitely deadly, and have killed plenty of people… most of the in memoriam characters weren’t killed by the undead. They were killed by people, crazy people, and Carol people, and Rick Grimes, among others. This chart is totally awesome by the way. Out of 105 total characters from the last five seasons, 31 are still alive, and 21 out of 105 were killed by the undead. 53 out of the 105, more than twice as many death-by-zombie, were killed by people. The average lifespan of any character runs about 12 episodes.
There’s also a video included about why Robert Kirkman never uses the word “zombie” in his show, –he also gets asked questions we want the answer to. Why no zombies? Because ‘The Walking Dead’ –according to Kirkman, exists in a world where zombies are not a thing, there are no zombie movies, or bestselling zombie book titles. It’s all about keeping it fresh and unknown to the series’ characters, who have no clue about what zombies are… there are no word for them so people just call them whatever they think is best. Walkers, stiffs, corpses, biters… lots of cool euphemisms emerge, and it’s awesome too, because they’re not limited by the immediate label provided in most zombie movies.
source: uk.businessinsider.com