The Smurfs are a fictional race of small, blue human-like creatures that live in mushroom houses in an enchanted forest. They were originally created by Belgian cartoonist Peyo in the 1950s. Since then, they have exploded in popularity, appearing in comics, animated shows, films, video games, theme parks, and countless merchandising.
One question that Smurf fans often wonder is: how many baby Smurfs are there? In this article, we will dive into the history of the Smurfs to try to determine an estimate of the Smurf population and specifically how many of them are baby Smurfs.
Original Smurf Village
In the original Belgian comics by Peyo, there was a small village of 100 Smurfs. Their names reflected their personalities or occupations, like Papa Smurf, Smurfette, Brainy Smurf, Hefty Smurf, Handy Smurf, Grouchy Smurf, etc.
The first baby Smurf was introduced in the comic story “The Smurflings” in 1976. Up until then, the adult Smurfs had simply sprung up from the ground fully grown from magic sarsaparilla root. But the Smurflings story introduced Natural “Nat” Smurf, who was magically delivered by a stork as an infant to the village.
After Nat, more babies soon arrived in the village, also delivered by stork, apparently triggered by Papa Smurf deciding the village needed “the pitter patter of little feet”.
So in those original comics, there was 1 confirmed baby Smurf out of 100 total Smurfs in the village.
Hanna-Barbera Cartoon Series
When the Smurfs were adapted into the popular Hanna-Barbera animated series in the 1980s, the small size of the village increased. Now there were 99 adult Smurfs and the population had expanded to include multiple young Smurfs.
The baby Smurfs on the show included:
- Baby Smurf – wears a diaper and bonnet
- Nat Smurfling – wears a yellow t-shirt
- Snappy Smurfling – wears a red shirt and overalls
- Slouchy Smurfling – wears a blue long-sleeved shirt
So in the Hanna-Barbera series, there were 4 confirmed baby Smurfs out of around 103 total Smurfs.
2011 Smurfs Movie
When the Smurfs were made into a live-action/CGI film in 2011, the village expanded more with many more young Smurfs included.
Some of the baby Smurfs seen in the film are:
- Baby Smurf
- Natural “Nat” Smurf
- Clumsy Smurfling
- Snappy Smurfling
There were also dozens of unnamed baby Smurfs shown crowding around Gargamel when he first discovered the village.
So in the 2011 movie, there were approximately 30 baby Smurfs in a village of around 150 total Smurfs.
Estimating the Total Baby Smurf Population
Based on the information from these primary Smurfs sources, we can estimate a range for the potential total baby Smurf population:
Minimum Estimate
If we take just the named/confirmed baby Smurfs, there would be at minimum 4 baby Smurfs from the Hanna-Barbera cartoons.
Moderate Estimate
A moderate estimate would be the number of baby Smurfs actually shown on screen in the 2011 Smurfs movie, which appeared to be around 30.
Maximum Estimate
We know there were approximately 150 Smurfs total living in the village in the 2011 movie. If we assume a similar percentage of the village were babies as in real medieval human villages, which had high infant mortality rates, babies could make up 15-30% of the population.
That would put the maximum baby Smurf estimate at around 45 (taking 30% of 150).
Conclusion
Based on the canonical Smurfs sources, there are likely between 4 and 45 baby Smurfs in the Smurf village at any given time. We can summarize the estimates in a table:
| Source | Total Smurfs | Baby Smurfs |
|---|---|---|
| Belgian Comics | 100 | 1 |
| Hanna-Barbera Cartoon | 103 | 4 |
| 2011 Movie | 150 | 30 |
So while we don’t have an exact number, based on the population trends, the total number of baby Smurfs is likely somewhere between 10-40% of the total village, which would mean a reasonable estimate for the Smurf village today would be between 10-20 baby Smurfs existing at any given time!