What makes Vegeta so sure there are no other Saiyans left?

[peterx]

Throughout DBZ Vegeta says multiple times there are no other Saiyans left..

We know for sure now that was not true, but even back in Saiyan/Freeza saga we knew that hundreds, thousands or even more Saiyans were sent out as babies throughout the universe.. so even Toriyama should have knew this at that time back in the 80s, 90s.

Were Vegeta really this short sighted due to some ego problem or this was just another Toriyama mistake?
Or there was some active search & destroy order by Freeza for the remaining Saiyans since planet Vegeta was destroyed?

[MasenkoHA]

. In the current canon Freeza called everyone back and Vegeta and his group just ignored it. Bardock and Gine sent Goku to earth to spare him.

The “few survivors but also Goku was sent on a mission to destroy earth but really only a handful of survivors I swear!!” was a plothole Dragon Ball Minus actually fixed.

[theherodjl]

The Saiyan babies simply may have had a low survival rate on the worlds that they were sent to. Some filler scenes from the anime depicted at least a few worlds with technology capable of holding off even a group of adult Saiyans so in a number of instances, the babies wouldn't have stood a chance against the population they were sent to destroy. There are also other factors such as the babies getting sick or injured and perishing under harsh conditions.
It's possible that the order for the Saiyans to return back to Planet Vegeta entailed the recall of any & all babies sent away, the adults or Freeza's force themselves going and gathering them all back up.

[Grimlock]

I think it's because in Dragon Ball Minus there was an order for all Saiyans to come back to the planet. Such order didn't happen in the Bardock TV Special. So a lot of Saiyans could have survived.

But then again, while Dragon Ball Minus kinda "fixes" this, the probability of more Saiyans having survived is still there, only less when compared to the TV Special. We saw that Vegeta decided to ignore the order, so it's possible that more Saiyans also decided to do the same. It is also said that nearly all Saiyans will be back within one month. That opens up the possibility for Saiyans that were far away to have survived.

And then, there is this teeny tiny chance that Saiyans (and/or baby Saiyans) were sent to another planet during the one-month timeskip secretly, like Goku was. Or a bit before the order.

Or there was some active search & destroy order by Freeza for the remaining Saiyans since planet Vegeta was destroyed?

Nothing of sorts. After the destruction, all they say is that if the remaining Saiyans start to suspect him, they'll just say the planet was destroyed by meteor.

[JulieYBM]

I honestly don't mind more Saiyans and descendants coming out of the wood works down the line. I think it'd be really interesting to see how Saiyans' descendants have split off across the galaxy.

[precita]

It's the same thing as in Star Wars "Order 66" where we're told all the Jedi besides Obi-wan and Yoda were killed after the Clone Wars. And now years later we're finding out many other Jedi survived the purge like Ahsoka, and the characters from Rebels and the new videogame Jedi Fallen Order.

[TobyS]

Someone pointed out the time they worked for freeza and when he killed them wasnt that long.
Who knows how long the pod baby program was running.
The saiyan population is quite low so probably not that many babies in existence either.
Freeza force probably had records of where they were sent, except Goku was sent without permission. They probably sent squads to kill adult and baby stragglers. Toyo shows Bardocks old squad killed this way in a Toyo drew it chapter, and he has some say in the direction of the franchise.
The Ginyus show knowledge of adult saiyan battlepowers, exceeding those seen on Vegeta at the time of its destruction later in the Namek arc, a possible hint they have been killing saiyans.
People like Jaco were being dispatched by the galactic patrol to kill the pod babies, Goku survived due to a fluke of Jaco being busy.
Vegeta disobeyed the order but he's a contrarian dickhead even AMONGST saiyans. So probably no one else did (except maybe Turles and Onio)
There's allegedly only 21 populated planets (with sentient life anyway)

When you put all these factors together it's very unlikely.