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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 natural disasters. Most numbers are estimates and are often in dispute. The incidents are ranked from the highest to the lowest estimate given. This list is, by necessity, somewhat biased toward the modern period, due to better reporting of events.
Some events overlap categories.
Top Ten deadliest natural disasters
List excludes diseases and famines, which would otherwise occupy the entire list.
| Rank | Event | Location | Date | Death Toll (Estimate) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | 1931 China floods | China | 1931 | 2,000,000-4,000,000*1 |
| 2. | 1887 Yellow River flood | China | 1887, September–October | 900,000–2,000,000 |
| 3. | 1556 Shaanxi earthquake | Shaanxi Province, China | 1556, January 23 | 830,000+ |
| 4. | 1970 Bhola cyclone | Bangladesh | 1970, November 13 | 500,000 |
| 5. | 1839 India Cyclone | India | 1839, November 25 | ≥ 300,000 |
| 6. | 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake/tsunami | Indian Ocean | 2004, December 26 | 283,100 |
| 7. | 526 Antioch earthquake | Antioch, Turkey | 526, May 20 | 250,000 |
| 8. | 1976 Tangshan earthquake | Tangshan, Hebei, China | 1976, July 28 | 242,000 |
| 9. | 1920 Haiyuan earthquake | Haiyuan, Ningxia-Gansu, China | 1920, December 16 | 240,000 |
| 10. | 1975 Banqiao Dam failure | Henan, China | 1975, August | 231,000 |
* Estimate by Nova's sources are close to four million and yet Encarta's sources report as few as one million. Expert estimates report wide variance.
Deadliest natural disasters by kind of Event
| Event | Event name | Location | Date | Death Toll (Estimate) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Avalanche | Wellington avalanche | United States | March 1, 1910 | 96 |
| Blizzard | Iran Blizzard | Iran | February 1972 | 4,000 |
| Drought | Great Famine of 1876–78 | India | 1876–1878 | 5,250,000 |
| Earthquake | Shaanxi Earthquake | China | 1556 | 830,000 |
| Flood | 1931 China floods | China | 1931 | 2,000,000–4,000,000 |
| Hailstorm | Roopkund, Uttaranchal | India | 9th century | 200–600 |
| Heat wave | European Heat Wave of 2003 | Europe | 2003 | 37,451 |
| Landslide | 1999 Vargas mudslide | Venezuela | 1999 | 20,006 |
| Limnic Eruption | Lake Nyos | Cameroon | 1986 | 1,746 |
| Pandemic | Black Death | worldwide | 1330–1351 | 75,000,000 |
| Tornado | Saturia-Manikganj Sadar Tornado | Bangladesh | April 26, 1989 | 1,300 |
| Tropical cyclone | 1970 Bhola cyclone | Bangladesh | November 13, 1970 | 200,000–500,000 |
| Tsunami | 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake/tsunami | Indian Ocean | December 26, 2004 | 230,000 |
| Volcano | Mount Tambora | Indonesia | 1815 | 92,000 |
| Wildfire | Peshtigo Fire | United States | October 8, 1871 | 2,000 |
Earthquakes
| Death Toll | Event | Location | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 830,000 | 1556 Shaanxi earthquake | China | 1556 |
| 286,000 | 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake | Indonesia,Sri Lanka,India,Thialand | 2004 |
| 255,000 | 1976 Tangshan earthquake | China | 1976 |
| 240,000 | 1920 Haiyuan earthquake | China | 1920 |
| 230,000 | 1138 Aleppo earthquake | Syria | 1138 |
| 200,000 | Damghan earthquake | Iran | 856 |
| 150,000 | Ardabil earthquake | Iran | 893 |
| 137,000 | 1730 Hokkaidō earthquake | Japan | 1730 |
| 110,000 | 1948 Ashgabat earthquake | Turkmenistan | 1948 |
| 105,000 | Great Kanto earthquake | Japan | 1923 |
| 100,000 | Messina earthquake | Italy | 1908 |
| 100,000 | 1755 Lisbon earthquake | Portugal | 1755 |
| 100,000 | Chihli earthquake | China | 1290 |
| 86,000 | 2005 Kashmir earthquake | Pakistan | 2005 |
| 85,000 | Great Ansei Nankai Quakes, Japan (安政南海地震) | Japan | 1854 |
| 80,000 | Shamakhi | Azerbaijan | 1667 |
| 77,000 | Tabriz Earthquake | Iran | 1727 |
| 70,000 | Changma, Gansu earthquake | China | 1932 |
| 69,197 | 2008 Sichuan earthquake | China | 2008 |
| 66,000 | Ancash earthquake | Peru | 1970 |
| 60,000 | Sicily earthquake2 | Italy | 1693 |
| 60,000 | 1935 Balochistan earthquake | British India | 1935 |
| 50,000 | Calabria earthquake | Italy | 1783 |
| 40,000 | Gulang, Gansu earthquake | China | 1927 |
| 40,000 | Meiō Nankai, Japan (明応地震) earthquake | Japan | 1498 |
| 40,000 | Quito earthquake | Ecuador | 1797 |
| 37,000 | Genroku earthquake (元禄大地震) | Japan | 1703 |
| 35,000 | 1990 Manjil Rudbar earthquake | Iran | 1990 |
| 32,962 | Erzincan earthquake | Turkey | 1939 |
| 30,000 | Great Hōei Earthquake (宝永大地震) | Japan | 1707 |
| 30,000 | 2003 Bam earthquake | Iran | 2003 |
| 25,000 | Spitak Earthquake | Armenia | 1988 |
| 25,000 | 1978 Tabas earthquake | Iran | 1978 |
| 23,700 | Kamakura earthquake | Japan | 1293 |
| 23,000 | Guatemala earthquake | Guatemala | 1976 |
| 20,000 | Gujarat earthquake | India | 2001 |
| 20,000 | Caracas earthquake | Venezuela | 1812 |
| 20,000 | Chillán earthquake | Chile | 1939 |
| 18,000 | Khait earthquake | Tajikistan | 1949 |
| 17,118 | Izmit earthquake | Turkey | 1999 |
Top Ten Deadliest Volcanic eruptions
| Death Toll | Event | Location | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 92,000 | Mount Tambora (see also Year Without a Summer) | Indonesia | 1815 |
| 36,000 | Krakatoa | Indonesia | August 26 - August 27, 1883 |
| 29,000 | Mount Pelée | Martinique | May 7 or May 8, 1902 |
| 23,000 | Nevado del Ruiz | Colombia | November 13, 1985 |
| 18,000 | Mount Vesuvius | Italy | 1631 |
| 15,000 | Mount Unzen | Japan | 1792 |
| 10,000 | Mount Kelut | Indonesia | 1586 |
| 9,350 | Laki. Killed about 25% of the population (33% were killed about 70 years before by smallpox) | Iceland | June 8, 1783 |
| 6,000 | Santa Maria | Guatemala | 1902 |
| 5,115 | Mount Kelut | Indonesia | May 19, 1919 |
Notes
A supervolcano eruption at Lake Toba around 74,000 years ago is thought to have wiped out as much as 99% of the global human population, reducing the population from at most 60 million to less than 10 thousand; see Toba catastrophe theory. This eruption is not listed because it occurred before recorded history. Also, the Thera eruption in the Aegean Sea between 1550 and 1650 B.C. may have caused a large number of deaths throughout the region, from Crete to Egypt. See also La Garita Caldera, Yellowstone Caldera, and Supervolcanoes.
References
Top Ten Deadliest Tsunamis
- See Historic tsunami for more detailed information.
| Death Toll | Event | Location | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| > 350,000 (sources vary) | 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake/tsunami | Indian Ocean | 2004 |
| 100,000 | 1755 Lisbon earthquake/tsunami/fire | Portugal, Morocco, Ireland, and the United Kingdom (Cornwall) | 1755 |
| 100,000 | 1908 Messina earthquake/tsunami | Messina, Italy | 1908 |
| 36,000 | caused by 1883 Krakatoa eruption | Indonesia | 1883 |
| 30,000 | Tokaido/Nankaido, Japan | 1707 | |
| 27,000 | Japan | 1826 | |
| 25,674 | 1868 Arica earthquake/tsunami | Arica, Chile | 1868 |
| 22,070 | Sanriku, Japan | 1896 | |
| 15,030 | caused by 1792 Mount Unzen eruption in southwest Kyūshū | Kyūshū, Japan | 1792 |
| 13,486 | Ryukyu Trench | 1771 |
Limnic eruptions
| Death Toll | Event | Location | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1,746 | Lake Nyos | Cameroon | 1986 |
| 37 | Lake Monoun | Cameroon | 1984 |
Extreme weather
Top Ten Deadliest Heat waves
| Death Toll | Event | Location | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 37,451 | 2003 European heat wave | Western Europe | 2003 |
| 3,418 | 2006 European heat wave | France, Belgium, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Romania | 2006 |
| 2,541 | 1998 India heat wave | India | 1998 |
| 1,900 | 2003 India heat wave | India | 2003 |
| 1,250–10,000 | 1980 United States heat wave | United States | 1980 |
| 1,000–1,500 | 1987 Mediterranean heat wave | Greece, Bosnia, Serbia, Turkey, Italy | 1987 |
| over 1,000 | 1994 East Asia heat wave | China, Japan, South Korea | 1994 |
| 739 | Chicago Heat Wave of 1995 | United States (Chicago, Illinois) | 1995 |
| 500 | Hungary Heat Wave of 2007 | Hungary | 2007 |
| 437 | Southern regions, Australia 1895–1896 | Australia | 1895–1896 |
Top Ten Deadliest Storms (non-cyclone)
| Death Toll | Event | Location | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 15,100 | Torrential rains and mudslides | Venezuela | 1999 |
| 669 (and 695 missing) | Heavy storms ("Winnie") | Philippines | 2004 |
| 500 | Lofoten, Heavy storm | Norway | 1849 |
| ≥ 250 | Great Lakes Storm of 1913 | United States and Canada (Great Lakes region) | 1913 |
| 210 | Trøndelag, storm ("Follastormen") | Norway | 1625 |
| 189 | Eyemouth, Scotland, storm ("Black Friday") | United Kingdom | 1881 |
| 140 | Trøndelag, storm ("Titran disaster") | Norway | 1899 |
| 96 | Lofoten, storm | Norway | 1868 |
| 30 | Haugesund, storm ("Røvær disaster") | Norway | 1899 |
| 26 | Vesterålen, storm | Norway | 1802 |
Top Ten Deadliest Tornadoes
| Death Toll | Event | Location | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1,300 | The Saturia-Manikganj Sadar Tornado | Bangladesh; (Manikganj) | 1989 |
| 923 | 1969 East Pakistan Tornado | Bangladesh | 1969 |
| 695 | The Tri-State Tornado | United States; (Missouri–Illinois–Indiana) | 1925 |
| 681 | 1973 Dhaka Tornado | Bangladesh | 1973 |
| 600 | The Malta Tornado | Malta | 1551 |
| 500 | The Sicily Tornado | Italy | 1851 |
| 500 | The Narail-Magura Tornadoes | Bangladesh (Jessore) | 1964 |
| 500 | The Comoro Tornado | Comoro | 1951 |
| 440 | The Tangail Tornado | Bangladesh | 1996 |
| 400 | Ivanovo, Yaroslavl Tornado | Russia | 1984 |
Top Ten Deadliest Cyclones, hurricanes and typhoons
| Death Toll | Event | Location | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 500,000 | 1970 Bhola cyclone | Bangladesh (East Pakistan) | 1970 |
| 300,000 | 1839 Indian cyclone | India | 1839 |
| 300,000 | 1881 Haiphong Typhoon | Vietnam | 1881 |
| 300,0003 | 1737 Calcutta cyclone | India | 1737 |
| 210,000 | Super Typhoon Nina—contributed to Banqiao Dam failure | China | 1975 |
| 200,0004 | Great Backerganj Cyclone of 1876 | present day Bangladesh | 1876 |
| ~146,000 | Cyclone Nargis | Myanmar | 2008 |
| 138,866 | 1991 Bangladesh cyclone | Bangladesh | 1991 |
| 100,000 | 1882 Bombay cyclone | Bombay, India | June 6, 1882 |
| 60,000 | 1922 Swatow Typhoon | China | 1922 |
| 60,000 | 1864 Calcutta Cyclone | India | 1864 |
References
Top Ten Deadliest Floods and landslides
| Death Toll | Event | Location | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2,500,000–3,700,0005 | 1931 China floods | China | 1931 |
| 900,000–2,000,000 | 1887 Yellow River (Huang He) flood | China | 1887 |
| 500,000–700,000 | 1938 Yellow River (Huang He) flood | China | 1938 |
| 231,000 | Banqiao Dam failure, result of Typhoon Nina. Approximately 86,000 people died from flooding and another 145,000 died during subsequent disease. | China | 1975 |
| 145,000 | 1935 Yangtze river flood | China | 1935 |
| more than 100,000 | St. Felix's Flood, storm surge | Netherlands | 1530 |
| 100,000 | Hanoi and Red River Delta flood | North Vietnam | 1971 |
| 100,000 | 1911 Yangtze river flood | China | 1911 |
| 50,000–80,000 | St. Lucia's flood, storm surge | Netherlands | 1287 |
| 60,000 | North Sea flood, storm surge | Netherlands | 1212 |
Top Ten Deadliest Wildfires, bushfires
| Death Toll | Event | Location | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1,200–2,500 | Peshtigo Fire, Wisconsin | United States | 1871 |
| 453 | Cloquet Fire, Minnesota | United States | 1918 |
| 418 | Hinckley Fire, Minnesota | United States | 1894 |
| ≥ 250 | Thumb Fire, Michigan | United States | 1881 |
| 200–250 | Matheson Fire, Ontario | Canada | 1916 |
| 240 | Sumatra, Kalimantan | Indonesia | 1997 |
| 230 | Landes region | France | 1949 |
| 213 | Greater Hinggan, Heilongjiang | China | 1987 |
| 160 | Miramichi Fire, New Brunswick | Canada | 1825 |
| 110 | 1963 Paraná Forest fires, | Brazil | 1963 |
References
Top Ten Deadliest Blizzards
| Death Toll | Event | Location | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4,000 | Iran Blizzard | Iran | 1972 |
| 1,317 | 2008 Afghanistan blizzard with snow storm | Afghanistan | 2008 |
| 400 | Great Blizzard of 1888 | United States | 1888 |
| 318 | 1993 North American Storm Complex | United States | 1993 |
| 235 | Schoolhouse Blizzard | United States | 1888 |
| 199 | Hakkōda Mountains incident | Japan | 1902 |
| 144 | Armistice Day Blizzard | United States | 1940 |
| 133 | 2008 China Blizzard during snow storm | China | 2008 |
| 112 | 1995 Kazakh Blizzard during snow storm | Kazakhstan | 1995 |
| 54 | Blizzard of 1978 | United States | 1978 |
Contractible diseases
 |
The following text needs to be harmonized with text in List of epidemics. |
| Death Toll | Event | Location | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 300,000,000-500,000,000 | Smallpox | Worldwide | 20th century alone6 |
| approx. 100,000,000 | Bubonic Plague: Black Death | Asia, Europe, Africa | 1300s–1720s; |
| ≥ 200,000,000 | Measles | Worldwide | last 150 years7 |
| 80,000,000–250,000,000 | Malaria | Worldwide | 20th century – present[update] |
| 50,000,000–100,000,000 | Spanish Flu | Worldwide | 1918–19198 |
| 40,000,000–100,000,000 | Tuberculosis | Worldwide | 20th century – present[update]7 |
| approx. 40,000,000 | Bubonic Plague: Plague of Justinian | Asia, Europe, Africa | 540–590 |
| 25,250,000 | AIDS | Worldwide | 1981–present (as of 2007) |
| ≥ 12,000,000 | Bubonic Plague: Third Pandemic | Worldwide | 1850s–1950s |
| 5,000,000 | Antonine Plague | Roman Empire | 165–180 |
| 4,000,000 | Asian Flu pandemic | Worldwide | 1957 |
| 750,000 | Hong Kong Flu pandemic | Worldwide | 1968 |
| 775 | Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) | Mostly East Asia, few cases in Europe, Canada and United States | 2002–2003 |
| 677 | West Nile Virus outbreak | North America | 1999–2004 |
| 256 | H5N1 strain of Bird Flu | (mainly in Asia, few in Africa and Middle East) | 2003–present (as of 2007) |
Famine
|
|
The following text needs to be harmonized with text in List of famines. |
- Please Note: Some of these famines may be partially or completely caused by humans.
| Death Toll | Event | Location | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20,000,000–43,000,000 | Great Chinese Famine | China | 1958–1961 |
| 24,000,000 | Chinese Famine of 1907 | China | 1907 |
| 19,000,000 | Indian Famine | India | 1896–1902 |
| 15,000,000 | Bengal famine of 1770, incl. Bihar & Orissa | India | 1769–1771 |
| 13,000,000 | Northern Chinese Famine | China | 1876–1879 |
| 10,000,000 | Southern and Central Indian Famine | India | 1876–1879 |
| 7,500,000 | Great European Famine | Europe | 1315–1317 |
| 5,000,000 | Chinese Famine of 1936 | China | 1936 |
| 5,000,000 | Holodomor | Ukraine | 1932–1934 |
| 5,000,000 | Ukraine and Volga Famine | Ukraine, Russia | 1921–1922 |
| 4,000,000 | Bengal famine of 1943 | India | 1943 |
| 3,000,000 | Chinese Drought 1941 | China | 1941 |
| 3,000,000 | Chinese Famine of 1928–1930 | China | 1928–1930 |
| 1,000,000-1,500,000 | Great Irish Famine | Ireland | 1846–1849 |
| 2,000,000 | Vietnamese War Famine | Vietnam | 1943–1945 |
| 1,500,000–3,000,000 | Bengal Famine of 1943 | India | 1943 |
| 1,200,000 | North Korean famine | North Korea | 1996–1998 |
| 1,000,000 | 1984–1985 famine in Ethiopia | Ethiopia | 1984 |
| 1,000,000 | Horn of Africa famine | Ethiopia, Sudan, Somalia | 1888 |
| 26,000-1,000,000 | Bangladesh famine of 1974—Official records claim 26,000. However, various sources claim about 1,000,000. | Bangladesh | 1974 |
| 150,000 | Finnish famine of 1866–1868 | Finland | 1866–1868 |
| 30,000 | Dutch famine of 1944 | The Netherlands | 1944 |
Footnotes
- ^ The world's worst natural disasters
- ^ Italy's earthquake history, BBC News
- ^ 10 'Worst' Natural Disasters
- ^ Hurricanes: case studies
- ^ Worst Natural Disasters In History
- ^ "UC Davis Magazine, Summer 2006: Epidemics on the Horizon". Retrieved on 2008-01-03.
- ^ a b Torrey EF and Yolken RH. 2005. Their bugs are worse than their bite. Washington Post, April 3, p. B01.
- ^ 1918 Influenza: the Mother of All Pandemics, CDC
See also
- List of disasters
- List of earthquakes
- List of famines
- List of epidemics
- List of all known deadly earthquakes since 1900
- Risks to civilization, humans and planet Earth
Other lists organized by death toll
- List of wars and disasters by death toll
- List of accidents and disasters by death toll
- List of battles and other violent events by death toll
- List of disasters in Australia by death toll
- List of Canadian disasters by death toll
- List of New Zealand disasters by death toll
- List of United Kingdom disasters by death toll
- List of United States disasters by death toll
- Tsunamis in the United Kingdom
External links
- When Nature Attacks Newsweek
- Death Toll from Disasters, War, Terrorists
- World's worst natural disasters since 1900
- Plague – Encyclopaedia Britannica 1911
- Famine – Encyclopaedia Britannica 1911
- The worst Natural Disasters ever
- Forces of Nature: Worst Disasters
- Guinness Book of World Records
- USGS Earthquake Hazards Program
- EM-DAT: The International Disaster Database. Managed by the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters
- War Disaster and Genocide
- Worlds Worst Natural Disasters
- The dimension of famine
- Brief history of Population
- Facts on malnutrition & famine
- Emergency Management Australia, Disasters Database Report
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