A death toll is the number of dead as a result of war, violence, accident, natural disaster, extreme weather, or disease.

Below is a list of death tolls for various infamous incidents. Most numbers are estimates and are often in dispute. The incidents are ranged by the highest estimate given.

Some events overlap categories.

Deaths caused by humans

War and military action

• 50,000,000-60,000,000 - World War II (1937-1945), (see World War II casualties) note that this figure includes well over 10 million genocide victims
• 30,000,000-60,000,000 - Mongol Conquests (13th century)
• 33,000,000-36,000,000 - An Lushan Rebellion (756-763)
• 25,000,000 - Manchu Conquest of Ming China (1616-1644)
• 20,000,000 - Taiping Rebellion (1851 - 1864)
• 15,000,000 - 20,000,000 - World War I (1914-1918) (see World War I casualties)
• 17,000,000 - Timur Lenk's conquests (1370?1405)
• 10,000,000+ - Sino-Japanese War (1931 - 1942)
• 7,500,000 - Thirty Years War (1618 - 1648)
• 6,194,000 - Chinese Civil War (1928 - 1949) note that this figure excludes World War II casualties
  • 300,000-3,100,000 before 1937
  • 1,000,000-3,000,000 after World War II
• 5,000,000 - Russian Civil War (1917 - 1921)
• 4,000,000 - Napoleonic Wars (1804 - 1815)
• 3,800,000 - Second Congo War (1998-2004)
• 3,000,000 - Spanish Civil War (1936-1939)
• 2,500,000-3,500,000 - Korean War (1950-1953)
• 1,750,000-3,100,000 - Vietnam War (entire war 1945-1975)
  • 300,000-1,300,000 - First Indochina War (1945-1954)
  • 100,000-300,000 - Vietnamese Civil War (1954-1960)
  • 1,200,000-2,100,000 - American phase (1960-1973)
  • 170,000 - Final phase (1973-1975)
  • 175,000-1,150,000 - Secret War (1962-1975)
• 300,000-3,000,000 - Indo-Pakistani War of 1971
• 1,500,000-2,000,000 - Afghanistan (1979-2001)
  • 1,000,000-1,500,000 Soviet intervention (1979-1989)
• 300,000-2,000,000 - Mexican Revolution (1910 - 1920)
• 230,000-1,400,000 - Ethiopian Civil War (1974 - 1991)
• 1,000,000 - Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988)
• 1,000,000 - Sudanese Civil War (1983 - 2002)
• 1,000,000 - Biafran War (1967-1970)
• 1,000,000 - Aztec conquests (1427-1519)
• 100,000-1,000,000 - Algerian War of Independence (1954-1962)
• 900,000-1,000,000 - Mozambique Civil War (1976 - 1993)
• 400,000-1,000,000 - War of the Triple Alliance in Paraguay (1864 - 1870)
• 800,000 - Congo Civil War (1991 - 1997)
• 200,000-800,000 - Warlord era in China (1917-1928)
• 558,052 - American Civil War (1861-1865)
• 550,000 - Somalian Civil War (1988 - )
• 500,000 - Angolan Civil War (1975 - 2002)
• 500,000 - Ugandan Civil War (1979 - 1986)
• 270,000-300,000 - Crimean War (1854 - 1856)
• 300,000 - First Burundi Civil War (1972)
• 220,000 - Liberian Civil War (1989 - )
• 200,000 - Sierra Leone Civil War (1991 - 2000)
• 200,000 - Guatemaltec Civil War (1960-1996)
• 190,000 - Franco-Prussian War (1870 - 1871)
• 150,000 - North Yemen Civil War (1962 - 1970)
• 150,000 - Russo-Japanese War (1904 - 1905)
• 30,000-100,000 - American led invasion and occupation of Iraq (2003 - )
• 100,000 - Gulf War (1991)
• 75,000 - Ethiopia - Eritrea War (1998 - 2000)
• 35,000 - Finnish Civil War (1918)
• 30,000 - Sino-Vietnamese War (1979)
• 13,000 - South Yemen Civil War (1986)
• 7,000 - Kosovo War (1996 - 1999) (disputed)
• 5,000 - Turkish invasion of Cyprus (1974)
• 3,000 - Northern Ireland conflict. 1969 - 1998
• 3,000 - Civil war in Côte d'Ivoire (2002 - )
• 2,000 - Football War (1969)
• 1,500 - Romanian Revolution (December 1989)
• 1,000 - Zapatista uprising in Chiapas (1994)
• 1,000 - Falklands War (1982)
• 537-3,000 - Operation Just Cause (Panama, 1989)

Individual battles, sieges and massacres

• 800,000-1,600,000 - Battle of Stalingrad (1942-1943)
• 670,000-1,500,000 - Siege of Leningrad (1941-1944)
• 500,000-900,000 - 1938 Huang He flood, caused by sabotage in the Second Sino-Japanese War (1938)
• 250,000-750,000 - Battle of Verdun (1916)
• 300,000 - Battle of the Somme (1916)
• 165,000-300,000 Battle of Chalons (451)
• 50,000-350,000 - Rape of Nanking (1937)
• 250,000 - Battle of Okinawa (1945) includes civilian suicides
• 66,000-237,062 - Hiroshima Bombing (Japan, 1945)
• 233,847 - Battle of Kursk (1943)
• 230,000 - Battle of Berlin (1945)
• 220,000 - Massacre of the Helvetii (58 BC)
• 200,000 - Siege of Tenochtitlan (1520-1521)
• 175,000 - Operation Bagration (1944)
• 150,000 - Battle of Passchendaele (1917)
• 132,000 - Battle of Normandy (1944)
• 130,000 - Battle of Gallipoli (1916)
• 39,000-108,000 - Nagasaki Bombing (Japan, 1945)
• 75,000 - Battle of Arras (1917)
• 72,000 - Siege of Petersburg, Virginia (1864 -1865)
• 70,000 - Second Battle of Anchialus (917)
• 56,000-66,000 - Battle of Cannae (216 BC)
• 60,000 - Battle of Monte Cassino (1944)
• 57,000 - Battle of Waterloo (1815)
• 40,000-56,000 - Tet Offensive (1968)
• 30,000-50,000 - Battle of Naissus (268)
• 36,500 - Battle of the Ebro (1938)
• 35,000 - Battle of Mukden (1905)
• 32,000 - Battle of Lepanto (1571)
• 31,000 - Battle of Thapsus (46 BC)
• 30,000 - Battle of the Teutoburg Forest (9)
• 20,000-30,000 - Battle of Munda (45 BC)
• 25,000 - Battle of Pydna (168 BC)
• 26,000 - Katyn Massacre (1940)
• 20,000 - Battle of the Trebia (218 BC)
• 16,500 - Battle of Halhin Gol (1939)
• 15,000 - Battle of Lake Trasimene (217 BC)
• 11,000 - Battle of Heraclea (180 BC)
• 7,000-11,000 - Battle of Pharsalus (48 BC)
• 10,500 - Battle of Asculum (279 BC)
• 10,360 - Battle of Mons Graupius (83 or 84)
• 10,000 - Battle of the Metaurus (207 BC)
• 10,000 - Battle of Celaya (1913)
• 8,700 - Battle of Cynoscephalae (197 BC)
• 7,058 - Battle of Gettysburg (July 1–3, 1863)
• 6,592 - Battle of Marathon (490 BC)
• 5,350+ - Battle of Suomussalmi (1939-1940)
• 5,000+ - Battle of Dara (530)
• 5,000+ - Battle of Dyrrhachium (1081)
• 4,808 - Battle of Antietam (September 16–18, 1862)
• 4,329 - Battle of Isandlwana (1879)
• 4,175 - Battle of Leuthen (1757)
• 3,477 - Battle of Shiloh (April 6-7, 1862)
• 3,205 - Second Battle of Bull Run (1862)
• 2,800 - Battle of Midway (1942)
• 2,400 - La Noche Triste (1520)
• 2,000+ - Battle of Manzikert (1071)
• 1,700 - Battle of Vicksburg (May 18 - July 4, 1863)
• 1,645 - Guernica (1937)
• 1,000+ - Battle of Dyrrhachium (48 BC)
• 868 - First Battle of Bull Run (July 21, 1861)
• 622 - Jamestown Massacre (1622)
• 567 - Battle of Rorke's Drift (1879)
• 495 - Battle of Monongahela (1755)
• 383 - Battle of the Alamo (1836)
• 366 - Battle of Bunker Hill (1775)
• 300 - Wounded Knee Massacre (1890)
• 264 - Battle of Little Bighorn (1876) US dead only

Genocide and democide

• 8,400,000-112,500,000 - Destruction of Native Americans (after 1492) An unknown but large part is not genodice or democide, but disease and warfare
• 6,000,000-60,000,000 - African and Atlantic slave trade (16th - 19th century)
• 20,000,000 - Great Purge (Soviet Union, 1930s) (Estimates range from 3.5 to 60 million)
• 250,000-20,000,000 - Cultural Revolution (China, 1966 - 1976 most estimates are around 1 to 2 million)
• 11,000,000-19,000,000 - Slave trade in Islamic World over 1200 years (7th - 19th century)
• 6,000,000-12,000,000 - Nazi internments and Holocaust in Europe
  • 6,000,000 - Jews
  • 2,600,000-4,000,000 Soviet POWs
  • 1,000,000+ - Political prisoners
  • 250,000-1,000,000 Roma
  • 70,000-275,000 Handicapped
  • 10,000-220,000 Homosexuals
• 5,000,000-10,000,000 - Congo Free State, (1877 - 1908)
• 1,000,000-3,000,000 Armenian Massacres (1895-1923) Heavily Disputed. Most cited number is 1.5 million. The Turkish government denies the genocide and accuses the Armenians of killing Turks instead
  • 30,000-300,000 - Hamidian (First Armenian) Massacre (1895-1896)
  • 6,000-30,000 - 1909
  • 600,000-2,000,000 - Second Armenian Massacre (1915-1918)
  • 250,000-500,0000 - (1919-1923)
• 1,700,000 - Pol Pot's communalisation program (Cambodia, 1976-1979)
• 500,000-1,500,000 - Degars killed in Vietnam, (Vietnam,1975 - present)
• 800,000-1,000,000 - Partition of India and Pakistan, (1947-1948)
• 250,000-1,000,000 - Massacre of alleged communists, (Indonesia, 1965-1966)
• 800,000 - Genocide in Rwanda (Rwanda, 1994)
• 300,000 - Idi Amin's dictatorship (Uganda, 1971-1979)
• 260,000 - Greeks killed in Asia Minor (Turkey, 1912 - 1923)
• 182,000 - Al-Anfal Campaign (Iraq, 1986-1989)
• 40,000-100,000 - Herero massacre, (Namibia, 1904-1908)
• 30,000 - Dictatorship of François "Papa Doc" Duvalier, (Haiti, 1964 - 1971)
• 10,000-30,000 228 Incident, (Taiwan, 1947)
• 10,000-30,000 Argentina's Dirty War, (Argentina, 1976 - 1983)
• 15,000-18,000 - Dictatorship of Fidel Castro, (Cuba, 1959 - present)
• 14,000 - Haitians massacred by Rafael Leónidas Trujillo's government. (Dominican Republic, 1937)
• 3,000 - Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship (Chile, 1973 - 1990)

Individual massacres and concentration camps

• 1,100,000 - Auschwitz concentration camp
• 700,000-1,000,000 - Treblinka extermination camp
• 260,000 Sobibór extermination camp
• 100,000 - Manila Massacre (Manila, Philippines, 1945)
• 70,000 - St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre (France, 1572)
• 30,000 - Babi Yar Yom Kippur Jewish Massacre (Kiev, Ukraine, 1941)
• 12,000 - La matanza (El Salvador, 1931)
• 5,000-12,000 - Massacre of Indians and Arabs in Zanzibar (Zanzibar, 1964)
• 5,000-7,000 - Halabja poison gas attack (Halabjah, Iraq, 1988)
• 328-5,500 - Sabra and Shatila Massacre (Lebanon, 1982)
• 379-1,000 - Jallianwala Bagh Massacre (Amritsar, India, 1919)
• 900 - El Mozote massacre (El Salvador, 1981)
• 268 - Plan de Sánchez massacre (Guatemala, 1982)
• 91-200 - Kristallnacht (Germany, 1938)
• 67 - Hebron 1929 Massacre (Palestine, 1929)
• 45-60 Acteal massacre (Mexico, 1997)

Terrorism

Note that any number of individual non-noteworthy attacks by various groups are not listed here. Generally these have been in the low to mid tens of deaths.

• 2,992 - September 11, 2001 attacks, (New York, Washington, DC, 2001) (see Casualties)
• 330 - Beslan School Siege, (Beslan, Russia, 2004)
• 329 - Air India flight 182 (Atlantic Ocean, south of Ireland, 1985)
• 299 - US and French barracks bombings, (Beirut, Lebanon, 1983)
• 270 - Pan Am Flight 103, (Lockerbie, Scotland, 1988)
• 257 - 1993 Mumbai bombings (Mumbai, India, 1993)
• 225 - 1998 U.S. embassy bombings, (Tanzania, Kenya, 1998)
• 220 - Kerbala and Baghdad attacks [1] (http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1160859,00.html), (Iraq, 2004)
• 202 - 2002 Bali terrorist bombing, (Indonesia, 2002)
• 191 - 11 March 2004 Madrid attacks, (Spain, 2004)
• 171 - UTA Flight UT-772, (Niger, 1989)
• 170 - Moscow Theatre Siege, (Russia, 2002)
• 168 - Oklahoma City bombing, (Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, 1995)
• 116 - Superferry 14 bombing, (Philippines, 2004)
• 90 - Central Bank Bombing, (Colombo, Sri Lanka, 1996)
• 89 - Russian airplane bombings, (Russia, 2004)
• 86 - AMIA Bombing, (Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1994)
• 63 - April 1983 US Embassy bombing, (Beirut, Lebanon, 1983)
• 57 - 2003 Istanbul Bombings, (Turkey, 2003)
• 52 - 2003 Mumbai bombings, (Mumbai, India, 2003)
• 40 - Wall Street bombing, (New York City, 1920)
• 34 - 2004 Sinai bombings, Taba and Nuweib, Egypt, 2004
• 33 - Dublin and Monaghan Bombings, (Ireland, 1974)
• 30 - Passover massacre, (Israel, 2002)
• 29 - Israeli Embassy Attack in Buenos Aires, (Argentina, 1992)
• 29 - Omagh Bombing, (Northern Ireland, 1998)
• 26 - bus No. 18 Jerusalem massacre, (Israel, 1996)
• 26 - Riyadh Compound Bombings, (Saudi Arabia, 2003)
• 23 - Jerusalem bus 2 massacre, (Israel, 2003)
• 22 - No. 5 bus Tel-Aviv massacre, (Israel, 1994)
• 22 - Tel-Aviv central bus station massacre, (Israel, 2003)
• 21 - Dolphinarium massacre, (Israel, 2001)
• 21 - Maxim restaurant suicide bombing, (Israel, 2003)
• 21 - Beit Lid junction massacre, (Israel, 1995)
• 19 - bus No. 18 Jerusalem massacre, (Israel, 1996)
• 19 - Patt junction massacre, (Israel, 2002)
• 19 - Birmingham pub bombing, (United Kingdom, 1974)
• 17 - Meggido junction massacre, (Israel, 2002)
• 17 - Haifa bus 37 massacre, (Israel, 2003)
• 17 - Jerusalem bus 14A massacre, (Israel, 2003)
• 16 - Mahane Yehuda massacre, (Israel, 1997)
• 16 - Rishon Lezion massacre, (Israel, 2002)
• 16 - Beersheba massacre, (Israel, 2004)
• 15 - Sbarro massacre, (Israel, 2001)
• 15 - Haifa Bus 16 massacre, (Israel, 2001)
• 15 - Matza restaurant massacre, (Israel, 2002)
• 14 - Bus 841 massacre, (Israel, 2002)
• 12 - Munich Massacre, Summer Olympics, (Germany, 1972)
• 11 - Ben Yehuda St. massacre, (Israel, 2001)
• 11 - Beit Yisrael massacre, (Israel, 2002)
• 11 - Moment cafe massacre, (Israel, 2002)
• 11 - Jerusalem bus 20 massacre, (Israel, 2002)
• 11 - Jerusalem bus 19 massacre, (Israel, 2004)
• 10 - Ashdod Port massacre, (Israel, 2004)
• 9 - Bloody Friday, (Northern Ireland, 1972)
• 6 - World Trade Center bombing, (New York, 1993)
• 3 - Sydney Hilton Hotel bombing, (Australia, 1978)

Murder (other than through terrorism)

• 400 - Abadan theater arson (Abadan, Iran, 1978)
• 360+ - Deaths in Ciudad Juárez (Mexico, 1990's- ) it is unknown how much the murders are related
• 323 - Circus arson, (Niteroi, Brazil, 1961)
• ~250 - Dr. Harold Shipman, Hyde, United Kingdom, (1970s?-1998)
• 189 - Subway arson (Daegu, South Korea, 2003)
• 140 - Luis Garavito, Colombia, (1992-1998)
• 97 - DuPont Plaza Hotel arson, San Juan, Puerto Rico, 1986)
• 87 - Happyland Fire, New York City, (1990)
• 53 - Andrei Chikatilo, Ukraine, (1982-1990)
• 52 - Anatoly Onopriyenko, Ukraine, (1996)
• 48 - Gary Ridgway, Green River Killer, Washington State, USA (1980s)
• 45 - Bath School Disaster, Bath, Michigan, USA (1927)
• 35 - Port Arthur Massacre, Australia (1996)
• 33 - John Wayne Gacy, Chicago, (1970s)
• 27 - Maria Swanenburg Leiden, Netherlands, (1880-1883)
• 23 - Ted Bundy, Florida, (1970s)
• 22+ - Robert Pickton, (Vancouver, 1990s)
• 21 - Yoo Young-Chul, (Seoul, 2003-2004)
• 21 - James Oliver Huberty, McDonald's massacre, San Ysidro, California, USA (1984)
• 18 - Dunblane Massacre, Scotland, United Kingdom (1996)
• 17 - Jeffrey Dahmer, Milwaukee, (1978-1991)
• 17 - Hungerford Massacre, England, (1987)
• 16 - Charles Whitman, University of Texas sniper, Austin, Texas (1966)
• 16 - Postal shooting, Edmond, Oklahoma (1986)
• 16 - Erfurt massacre, Erfurt, Germany (2002)
• 15 - Columbine High School massacre Colorado, (1999)
• 15 - Dennis Nilsen London, United Kingdom, (1978-1983)
• 14 - Montreal Massacre, Montreal, Canada, (1989)
• 13 - Howard Unruh, Camden, New Jersey, (1949)
• 13 - Hatfield-McCoy feud West Virginia/Kentucky (1860 - 1891)
• 12 - Fred West, Gloucester, England, (1973 - 1987)
• 11 - Juan Manuel Alvarez, Glendale, California, (2005)
• 5+ - Jack the Ripper, London, England (1888)

Religious sacrifice

• 2,000,000 - Thuggee cult
• 15,000 (estimated) - Holy Inquisition (Europe). 1184 - 1800
• 80,000 ('classic' estimate) - 3,000 (modern estimate) - temple of Huitzilopochtli
• 913 - Jonestown mass suicide & murders (Guyana, 1978)
• 53 - Order of the Solar Temple (Switzerland and Canada; October 5, 1994)
• 39 - Heaven's Gate (California, 1997)
• 16 - Order of the Solar Temple (