Creeper destroying blocks

Can the creeper's explosion give the same amount of blocks that it destroy? For exemple, a creeper blows up, an it made a hole in the ground. It destroyed let's say, 30 blocks of dirt. But only 10 blocks of dirt were "dropped" and can be picked up from the explosion. Suggesting this because it's very frustrating when a group of 10+ creepers spawn at night and just destroy everything when you take them out, Or when one just sneaks up on you, destroys your house, then when you are trying to repair, another one sneaked up to you and blows up again. I do understand the mechanic of creeper; I am playing it since beta 1.7.3 after all, but I just find myself repairing more than building / fighting lately.