List of anthropogenic disasters by death toll

Death toll estimates for some of the deadliest wars

This is a list of events that have caused a measurable drop in the total human population. The list covers the name of the event, location and the start and end of each event. Some events may belong in more than one category. In addition, some of the listed events overlap each other, and in some cases the death toll from a smaller event is included in the one for the larger event or time period of which it was part.

There is often large uncertainty about the death tolls. The tables are initially sorted by the geometric mean, meaning the square root of the product of the lowest and highest estimate, of the cumulative number of deaths, for example, ${\sqrt {500\cdot 2000}}=1000$ for a lowest estimate of 500 and highest of 2000 dead since the start of the war or disaster.

War

Wars and armed conflicts

Main article: List of wars by death toll

This section lists all wars and major conflicts in which the highest-estimated casualties exceeds 100,000. This includes deaths of both soldiers, civilians, etc. from causes both directly and indirectly caused by the war, which includes combat, disease, famine, massacres, suicide, and genocide.

Event	Lowest estimate	Highest estimate	Geometric mean estimate	Location	Start	End	Duration	Notes, see also
World War II	35,000,000	118,357,000	64,362,217	Worldwide	1939	1945	6 years and 1 day	See also: World War II casualties.
Mongol invasions and conquests	30,000,000	57,000,000	41,352,146	Eurasia	1206	1405	199 years	See also: Mongol Empire, Destruction under the Mongol Empire, Mongol invasion of the Khwarazmian Empire
Taiping Rebellion	20,000,000	30,000,000	28,284,271	China	1850	1864	14 years	A civil war in China. See also: Qing dynasty, Taiping Heavenly Kingdom
European colonization of the Americas	8,400,000	80,000,000	25,922,963	Americas	1492	1691	199 years	European exploration & subsequent settlement of the Americas death toll estimates vary due to lack of consensus as to the demographic size of the native population pre-Columbus, which might never be accurately determined. The 90% death rate was mainly caused by disease. Vast depopulation contributed to Little Ice Age.
Transition from Ming to Qing	25,000,000	25,000,000	25,000,000	China	1618	1683	65 years	See also: Qing dynasty
World War I	15,000,000	32,500,000+	22,079,402	Worldwide	1914	1918	4 years, 3 months, 1 week	Military conflict lasting from 1914 to 1918 between two opposing alliances – the Entente and the Central Powers. See also: World War I casualties
Second Sino-Japanese War	18,000,000	22,000,000	19,899,748	China	1937	1945	8 years, 1 month, 3 weeks and 5 days
An Lushan Rebellion	13,000,000	13,000,000	13,000,000	China	755	763	8 years	A civil war in Tang China. Also known as the An–Shi rebellion.
Dungan Revolt	10,000,000	10,000,000	10,000,000	China	1862	1877	15 years	Civil war in China. See also: Qing dynasty
Chinese Civil War	8,000,000	11,692,000	9,671,401	China	1927	1949	14 years	Major civil war in China that led to the foundation of a communist state
Russian Civil War	5,000,000	9,000,000	6,708,204	Russia	1917	1921	5 years	See also: Russian Revolution, List of civil wars
Thirty Years' War	4,500,000	8,000,000	6,000,000	Europe (primarily Holy Roman Empire)	1618	1648	30 years	Initially a religious war between Catholics and breakaway Protestant secular principalities, it became a general European political war. It was one of the longest and most destructive conflicts in European history.
Napoleonic Wars	3,500,000	7,000,000	4,949,747	Europe, Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Ocean	1803	1815	13 years	See also: Napoleonic Wars casualties secular revolutionary invasions of religious principalities, kingdoms & empires
Yellow Turban Rebellion	3,000,000	7,000,000	4,582,576	China (Han dynasty)	184	205	21 years	See also: End of the Han dynasty
Second Congo War	2,500,000	5,400,000	3,674,235	Democratic Republic of the Congo	1998	2003	6 years	See also: First Congo War
French Wars of Religion	2,000,000	4,000,000	2,828,427	France	1562	1598	37 years	Largely a secular war staged as a religious war between Catholics and breakaway Huguenots (French Calvinist Protestants).
Hundred Years' War	2,300,000	3,300,000	2,754,995	Western Europe	1337	1453	116 years	Edwardian War (1337–1360), Caroline War (1369–1389), Lancastrian War (1415–1453)
Korean War	1,500,000	4,500,000	2,598,076	Korean Peninsula	1950	1953	4 years	Part of the Cold War.
Qin's wars of unification	2,000,000	2,000,000	2,000,000	China	230 BCE	221 BCE	9 years	See also: History of China
Vietnam War	966,000	3,800,000	1,915,933	Southeast Asia	1955	1975	20 years	Cold War and First Indochina War
Mughal–Maratha Wars	600,000	5,600,000	1,833,030	India	1680	1707	27 years
Crusades	1,000,000	3,000,000	1,732,051	Holy Land, Europe	1095	1291	196 years	Initially defense of the Byzantine Empire from Islam by western Christian Kingdoms followed by defense of subsequent fiefdoms in the Holy Land / Middle East.
Nigerian Civil War	1,000,000	3,000,000	1,732,051	Nigeria	1966	1970	4 years	Ethnic cleansings of the Igbo people followed by Civil War.
Mfecane	1,500,000	2,000,000	1,732,051	Southern Africa	1816	1828	13 years	Ndwandwe–Zulu War
Punic Wars	1,250,000	1,850,000	1,520,691	Medi­terranean	264 BC	146 BC	118 years	See also: Carthage, Roman Republic
Second Sudanese Civil War	1,000,000	2,000,000	1,414,214	Sudan	1983	2005	23 years	First Sudanese Civil War
Seven Years' War	868,000	1,400,000	1,102,361	Worldwide	1756	1763	7 years
Soviet–Afghan War	600,000	2,000,000	1,095,445	Afghanistan	1980	1988	9 years	Part of the War in Afghanistan and categorized as a proxy war during the Cold War.
Japanese invasions of Korea	1,000,000	1,000,000	1,000,000	Korea	1592	1598	7 years
French Revolutionary Wars	1,000,000	1,000,000	1,000,000	Worldwide	1792	1802	10 years
Mexican Revolution	500,000	2,000,000	1,000,000	Mexico, United States	1911	1920	10 years	Includes Pancho Villa's raids and the Columbus Raid.
Panthay Rebellion	890,000	1,000,000	943,398	China	1856	1873	18 years
Wars of the Three Kingdoms	876,000	876,000	876,000	British Isles	1639	1651	12 years
Conquests of Mehmed II	873,000	873,000	873,000	Eastern Europe	1451	1481	30 years
Ethiopian Civil War	500,000	1,500,000	866,025	Ethiopia	1974	1991	17 years
Jewish–Roman wars	350,000	2,000,000	836,660	Roman Empire	66	136	70 years	See also: Roman Empire
American Civil War	650,000	1,000,000	806,226	South­eastern United States and Pennsylvania	1861	1865	4 years	See also: United States
Indian Rebellion of 1857	806,000+	806,000+	806,000+	India	1857	1858	1 year
Bangladesh Liberation War	200,000	3,000,000	774,597	Bangladesh	1971	1971	1 year	See also: 1971 Bangladesh genocide
Algerian War	350,000	1,500,000	724,569	Algeria	1954	1962	7 years, 4 months, 2 weeks, and 4 days
War of the Spanish Succession	400,000	1,251,000	707,390	Europe, North America, South America	1702	1714	12 years
Spanish Civil War	500,000	1,000,000	707,107	Spain	1936	1939	4 years
Eighty Years' War	230,000	2,000,000	678,233	The Low Countries, South America, Caribbean Sea, East and Southeast Asia	1568	1648	80 years
Gallic Wars	400,000	1,000,000	632,456	France	58 BCE	50 BCE	9 years	See also: Roman Empire
Spanish American wars of independence	600,000	600,000	600,000	Americas	1808	1833	25 years
Syrian civil war	580,000	613,407	596,470	Syria	2011	Present	13 years
Iran–Iraq War	289,220	1,100,000	564,041	Iran–Iraq border	1980	1988	8 years	Iran claims: 123,220 KIA + 11,000 civilians Iraq claims: 105,000 KIA + 50,000 in Kurdish Genocide Others claim 600,000 Iranians killed and 500,000 Iraqis
French invasion of Russia	540,000	540,000	540,000	Russia	1812	1812	5 months, 2 weeks and 6 days	Part of the Napoleonic Wars
English Civil War	356,000	735,000	511,527	England	1642	1651	9 years	Part of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms
Angolan Civil War	504,158	504,158	504,158	Angola	1975	2002	27 years
First Sudanese Civil War	500,000	500,000	500,000	Sudan	1955	1972	17 years
War on terror	480,000	507,000	493,315	Worldwide	2001	Present	years	Includes Iraq War, War in Afghanistan (2001–2021), and Insurgency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Colombian conflict	450,000	450,000	450,000	Colombia	1964	Present	59 years
Albigensian Crusade	200,000	1,000,000	447,214	Southern France	1208	1229	21 years
First Congo War	250,000	800,000	447,214	Zaire	1996	1997	1 year
Maratha invasions of Bengal	400,000	400,000	400,000	India	1741	1751	10 years
First Indochina War	400,000	400,000	400,000	Southeast Asia	1946	1954	8 years	Also known as the Indochina War
Continuation War	387,333	387,333	387,333	Northern Europe	1941	1944	3 years	Part of World War II
Somali Civil War	300,000	500,000	387,298	Somalia	1986	Present	35 years
South Sudanese Civil War	383,000	383,000	383,000	South Sudan	2013	2020	7 years
Crimean War	356,000	410,000	382,047	Crimea	1853	1856	3 years
Cuban War of Independence	362,000	362,000	362,000	Cuba	1895	1898	3 years
Iraq War	268,000	461,000	351,494	Iraq	2003	2011	8 years	Part of the War on terror. See also: Casualties of the Iraq War
Boko Haram insurgency	350,000	350,000	350,000	Mainly Nigeria, also Cameroon, Niger, Chad	2009	Present	14 years
Great Northern War	350,000	350,000	350,000	Northern and Eastern Europe	1700	1721	21 years
Italian Wars	300,000	400,000	346,410	Southern Europe	1494	1559	65 years	Also known as the Great Wars of Italy
Tigray War	162,000	600,000	311,769	Ethiopia	2020	2022	2 years	Part of Ethiopian civil conflict
French conquest of Algeria	300,000	300,000	300,000	Algeria	1829	1847	18 years
Burundian Civil War	300,000	300,000	300,000	Burundi	1993	2005	12 years
Yemeni Civil War (2014–present)	233,000	377,000	296,380	Yemen	2014	Present	9 years
War in Darfur	178,258	461,520	286,827	Sudan	2003	Present	18 years
Second Italo-Ethiopian War	278,350	278,350	278,350	Ethiopia	1935	1937	1 year, 4 months, 2 weeks, and 2 days	Also known as the Second Italo–Abyssinian War
Paraguayan War	150,000	500,000	273,861	Southern Cone	1864	1870	7 years	Military history of South America, Francisco Solano López and Luís Alves de Lima e Silva, Duke of Caxias
Papua conflict	150,000	400,000	244,949	New Guinea	1963	Present	58 years
Ten Years' War	241,000	241,000	241,000	Cuba	1868	1878	10 years	Also known as the Great War
Kalinga War	220,000	250,000	234,521	India	321 BCE	261 BCE	60 years
Philippine–American War	234,000	234,000	234,000	Philippines	1899	1912	13 years	Also known as the Philippine War
Venezuelan War of Independence	228,000	228,000	228,000	Venezuela	1810	1823	13 years	Part of the Spanish American wars of independence
Ugandan Bush War	100,000	500,000	223,607	Uganda	1981	1986	5 years	Also known as the Luwero War
Lord's Resistance Army insurgency	100,000	500,000	223,607	Central Africa	1987	Present	34 years
Franco-Dutch War	220,000	220,000	220,000	Western Europe	1672	1678	6 years	Also known as the Dutch War
War in Iraq (2013–2017)	217,500	217,500	217,500	Iraq	2013	2017	4 years
Iraqi–Kurdish conflict	138,800	320,100	210,784	Iraq	1918	2003	85 years
Campaigns of Suleiman the Magnificent	200,000	200,000	200,000	Eastern Europe, Middle East and North Africa	1521	1566	25 years
Franco-Spanish War (1635–1659)	200,000	200,000	200,000	Western Europe	1635	1659	24 years
Carlist Wars	200,000	200,000	200,000	Spain	1820	1876	56 years
La Violencia	192,700	194,700	193,697	Colombia	1948	1958	10 years
War in Afghanistan (2001–2021)	176,000	212,191	193,250	Afghanistan	2001	2021	20 years
Internal conflict in Myanmar	130,000	250,000	180,278	Myanmar	1948	Present	73 years
Winter War	153,736	194,837	173,071	Finland	1939	1940	1 year	Part of World War II
2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine	77,052	369,981	168,842	Ukraine (with spillover in Russia)	February 2022	Present	18 months	As of August 2023.
Guatemalan Civil War	140,000	200,000	167,332	Guatemala	1960	1996	36 years
Greek Civil War	158,000	158,000	158,000	Greece	1946	1949	3 years
Genocide of Nuba peoples	100,000	200,000	141,421	Sudan	1992	Present	28 years	Part of the Second Sudanese Civil War and Sudanese conflict in South Kordofan and Blue Nile)
North Yemen Civil War	100,000	200,000	141,421	Yemen	1962	1970	8 years
1991 Iraqi uprisings	85,000	235,000	141,333	Iraq	1991	1991	1 month and 4 days
Balkan Wars	140,000	140,000	140,000	Balkans	1912	1913	1 year	Military casualties
Anglo-Spanish War (1585–1604)	138,285	138,285	138,285	Europe and Americas	1585	1604	19 years
Saint-Domingue Expedition	135,000	135,000	135,000	Haiti	1802	1803	1 year
Yugoslav Wars	130,000	140,000	134,907	Balkans	1991	2001	10 years
Lebanese Civil War	120,000	150,000	134,164	Lebanon	1975	1990	15 years
Sierra Leone Civil War	50,000	300,000	122,474	Sierra Leone	1991	2002	11 years
Great Turkish War	120,000	120,000	120,000	Eastern Europe	1683	1699	16 years	Also known as the War of the Holy League
Thousand Days' War	120,000	120,000	120,000	Colombia	1899	1902	3 years
Moro conflict	120,000	120,000	120,000	Philippines	1969	Present	52 years
Arab–Israeli conflict	116,074	116,074	116,074	Middle East	1948	Present	73 years
Mexican drug war	106,800	106,800	106,800	Mexico	2006	Present	15 years	Also known as the Mexican War on Drugs
Aceh War	97,000	107,000	101,877	Indonesia	1873	1914	41 years	Also known as the Infidel War
Bosnian War	97,214	104,732	100,903	Bosnia and Herzegovina	1991	1995	4 years	Part of the Yugoslav Wars
German Peasants' War	100,000	100,000	100,000	Germany	1524	1525	1 year	Also known as the Great Peasants' War
Kurdish rebellions in Turkey	100,000	100,000	100,000	Middle East	1921	Present	100 years
Congo Crisis	100,000	100,000	100,000	Republic of the Congo	1960	1965	5 years
Insurgency in Laos	100,000	100,000	100,000	Laos	1975	2007	32 years
Kivu conflict	100,000	100,000	100,000	Democratic Republic of the Congo	2004	Present	17 years	Part of the Second Congo War
Kashmir conflict	80,000	110,000	93,808	North India, Pakistan	1947	Present	74 years
Algerian Civil War	44,000	200,000	93,808	Algeria	1991	2002	11 years
Angolan War of Independence	82,991	102,991	92,452	Angola	1961	1974	13 years
Sri Lankan Civil War	80,000	100,000	89,443	Sri Lanka	1983	2009	26 years
Annexation of Hyderabad	30,000	200,000	77,460	India	1948	1948	5 days	Also known as Operation Polo
Israeli–Palestinian conflict	51,731	63,647		Levant	1948	Present	78 Years	Part of the Arab–Israeli conflict

Mistreatment of civilians during war

This section lists non-combatant deaths during wars that were purposefully committed or caused by military or quasi-military forces with the intent of harm (deaths due to wartime shortages, for example, are not included as they are a side effect of war). They may not particularly target ethnic, religious, or political groups but are usually part of a military strategy that disregards civilian lives, or they may be arbitrary acts of cruelty. See democide.

Event	Lowest estimate	Highest estimate	Geometric mean estimate	Location	From	Until	Duration	Notes
War crimes during World War II	29,000,000	30,500,000	29,074,054	Worldwide	1939	1945	6 years	See also: World War II casualties.
Japanese war crimes	3,000,000 (lowest estimate to include soldier deaths, famine or disease caused by Japanese imperialism)	14,000,000+	6,480,741	In and around East and South East Asia, Oceania and the Pacific	1931	1945	14 years	Japanese war crimes occurred in many Asian and Pacific countries during the period of Japanese imperialism, primarily during the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II. If total casualties for these conflicts are assigned exclusively to Japanese aggression, the toll could reach some 30 million deaths. These incidents have also been described as an Asian Holocaust and Japanese war atrocities. Some war crimes were committed by military personnel from the Empire of Japan in the late 19th century, although most took place during the first part of the Shōwa Era, the name given to the reign of Emperor Hirohito, until the surrender of the Empire of Japan, in 1945.
Three Alls policy	2,700,000	2,700,000	2,700,000	China	1940	1942	2 years	In a study published in 1996, historian Mitsuyoshi Himeta claims that the Three Alls policy, a scorched-earth policy implemented by the Imperial Japanese Army on China, sanctioned by Emperor Hirohito himself, was both directly and indirectly responsible for the deaths of "more than 2.7 million" Chinese civilians.
War crimes during the Chinese Civil War	1,800,000	3,500,000	2,509,980	China	1927	1950	23 years	During the war, both Nationalists and Communists carried out mass atrocities, with millions of non-combatants deliberately killed by both sides.
War crimes during the First and Second Sudanese Civil Wars	2,000,000	2,000,000	2,000,000	Sudan	1956	2005	49 years
War crimes during the Soviet–Afghan War	500,000	2,000,000	1,000,000	Afghanistan	1979	1989	10 years	Some refer to the mass murder of civilians during the Soviet invasion as a genocide; however, those killed were on the basis of political alignment, making it a politicide.
War crimes of Zhang Xianzhong	1,000,000	1,000,000	1,000,000	Sichuan, China	1644	1646	2 years	Committed during a bloody peasant revolt that massacred a large portion of Sichuan's population.
War crimes during Warlord Era China	910,000	910,000	910,000	China	1900	1927	27 years
Mongol sacking after the Siege of Baghdad (1258)	200,000	2,000,000	632,456	Baghdad	January 29, 1258	February 10, 1258	12 days	Mass slaughter of civilians by the Mongols in Baghdad. Considered to be the end of the "Islamic Golden Age".
Biological warfare and human experimentation by the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II	400,000	580,000	481,664	Parts of Russia and China, especially Manchuria	1931	1945	14 years	See also: Unit 731 and the Asian Holocaust.
War crimes during the Maratha invasions of Bengal	400,000	400,000	400,000	Bengal and Bihar regions of Indian subcontinent	1741	1751	10 years	Maratha Empire invaded Bengal Subah, occupied the western Bengal and Bihar regions, and perpetrated atrocities against the local population.
War crimes during La Violencia	200,000	300,000	244,949	Colombia	1948	1958	10 years	La Violencia was a ten-year period of civil war and violence in Colombia from 1948 to 1958, between the Colombian Conservative Party and the Colombian Liberal Party, fought mainly in the rural countryside. Death toll may include non-civilian victims.
Manila massacre	100,000	500,000	223,607	Manila, Philippines	1945	1945	1 month
War crimes during the Colombian conflict	177,307	177,307	177,307	Colombia	1964	present	54 years
War crimes during the Second Italo-Ethiopian War	62,000	485,000	173,407	Ethiopia	1935	1941	6 years	Angelo Del Boca, The Ethiopian War 1935–1941 (1965), cites a 1945 memorandum from Ethiopia to the Conference of Prime Ministers, which tallies 760,300 natives dead; of them: battle deaths: 275,000, hunger among refugees: 300,000, patriots killed during occupation: 78,500, concentration camps: 35,000, February 1937 massacre: 30,000, executions: 24,000, civilians killed by air force: 17,800.
War crimes during the War in the Vendée	100,000	250,000	158,114	France during the French Revolution	1793	1796	3 years	Described as genocide by some historians, but this claim has been widely discounted. See also: French Revolution.
War crimes during the First and Second Chechen Wars	55,000	330,000	134,722	Chechnya	1994	2009	15 years
War crimes during the Iran–Iraq War	61,000	282,000	131,156	Iran and Iraq	1980	1988	8 years	11,000 to 100,000 civilians killed on both sides, plus 50 to 182 killed in Kurdish Genocide.
War crimes committed by South Vietnam during the Diem era and Vietnam War	57,000	284,000	127,232	Vietnam	1954	1975	21 years
War crimes during the Syrian civil war	106,390	110,218	108,287	Syria	2011	present	7 years	See also: List of massacres during the Syrian civil war
War crimes of the Lord's Resistance Army	100,000	100,000	100,000	Uganda, Central African Republic, and the Democratic Republic of Congo	1986	2009	23 years	The Guardian reported in 2015 that Kony's forces had been responsible for the deaths of over 100,000 people and the kidnapping of at least 60,000 children. Various atrocities committed include raping young girls and abducting them for use as sex slaves.
War crimes of the National Islamic Front	100,000	100,000	100,000	Sudan	1964	1999	35 years	Alleged human rights abuses by the NIF regime included war crimes, ethnic cleansing, a revival of slavery, torture of opponents, and an unprecedented number of refugees fleeing into Uganda, Kenya, Eritrea, Egypt, Europe and North America.
War crimes during the Papua conflict	100,000	100,000	100,000	West Papua	1963	present	55 years	Since Indonesia has taken control of West Papua in 1963, the population of West Papua has recorded more than 100,000 unnatural deaths. The administration of West Papua has been called a police state.
War crimes during the Second Italo-Senussi War	80,000	125,000	100,000	Libya	1923	1932	9 years	Specific war crimes alleged to have been committed by the Italian armed forces against civilians include deliberate bombing of civilians, killing unarmed children, women, and the elderly; rape and disembowelment of women; throwing prisoners out of aircraft to their death, running over others with tanks, regular daily executions of civilians in some areas, and bombing tribal villages with mustard gas bombs, beginning in 1930.
War crimes of the Viet Cong	36,725	227,000	91,305	Vietnam	1955	1975	20 years
The Rape of Nanjing	13,000 (all victims) 5,000 (civilian massacre victims)	400,000 (all victims) 100,000 (civilian massacre victims)	72,111 (all victims) 22,361 (civilian massacre victims)	Nanjing, China	1937	1938	1 year	The Nanjing Massacre, commonly known as the Rape of Nanjing, was a war crime committed by the Japanese military in Nanjing, then capital of the Republic of China, after it fell to the Imperial Japanese Army on December 13, 1937. See: Death toll of the Nanjing Massacre.
War crimes during the internal conflict in Peru	61,007 [see notes]	77,552[see notes]	68,784[see notes]	Peru	1980	2000	20 years	In the late 20th century, the Peruvian government (armed forces and civil rondas) fought against communist terrorists in Peru. The principal actors in the war were the Communist Party of Peru or "Shining Path" and the government of Peru; the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement was also involved and other paramilitary entities. Peru's Truth and Reconciliation Commission reached a figure of approx. 68,784 deaths and disappearances, of which 54% were ascribed to Shining Path, 1.5% to Tupac Amaru and 37% to State officials, who were also responsible for 83% of reported cases of sexual violence, and systematic use of torture. An academic research published in 2019 contests the commission's methodology, reaching a total figure of approx. 47,849, of which 27,872 were victims of State officials, 18,341 of the Shining Path, and 1,636 by all other actors.
War crimes during the Kashmir Conflict	47,000	100,000	68,557	Kashmir	1947	present	71 years	See also: Human Rights Abuses in Jammu and Kashmir, Insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir, List of massacres in Jammu and Kashmir
War crimes during the Sheikh Said rebellion	15,000 20,000	40,000 250,000	41,618	Turkey	1925	1925	1 month	The Sheikh Said Rebellion was a rebellion to revive the Islamic Caliphate System, and used elements of Kurdish nationalism for recruiting. It was led by Sheikh Said and a group of former Ottoman soldiers, known as Hamidiye soldiers. The rebellion was of two Kurdish groups, the Zaza people and the speakers of the related Kurmanji dialect of Kurdish: it "was led specifically by the Zaza population and received almost full support in the entire Zaza region and some of the neighbouring Kurmanji-dominated regions".
War crimes during the final stages of the Sri Lankan Civil War	7,000	169,796	34,476	Sri Lanka	2009	2009	1 year	There are allegations that war crimes were committed by the Sri Lankan military and the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (Tamil Tigers) during the Sri Lankan Civil War, particularly during the final months of the Eelam War IV phase in 2009. The alleged war crimes include attacks on civilians and civilian buildings by both sides; executions of combatants and prisoners by both sides; enforced disappearances by the Sri Lankan military and paramilitary groups backed by them; acute shortages of food, medicine, and clean water for civilians trapped in the war zone; and child recruitment by the Tamil Tigers. See also: Alleged war crimes during the final stages of the Sri Lankan Civil War
Violations of human rights in Islamic State-controlled territory	Many tens of thousands	Many tens of thousands		Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Libya, Philippines, Nigeria and sporadic terrorism worldwide	2014	present	7 years	ISIS has existed as an active terrorist organization in one form or another since at least 2003. Many tens of thousands of casualties in the Iraqi wars of the 21st century can be attributed to them and their parent organizations. See also the death tolls from 2014 onwards in International military intervention against ISIL
War crimes in the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine	10,094	25,094	15,915	Ukraine	2022	present	months	Casualties of the Russo-Ukrainian War#Civilian deaths
Sack of Thessalonica (904)	15,000	15,000	15,000	Byzantine Empire	904	904	?	The sack of the second city of the Byzantine Empire by a Muslim fleet under the command of Leo of Tripoli. In addition to the thousands killed, the Saracen fleet also took 20,000 Greek slaves.
War crimes in the Tigray War	2,316	52,000	10,974	Tigray, Ethiopia	2020	present	over 2 years	Casualties of the Tigray War#Total deaths
Use of child soldiers in Iran during the Iran–Iraq War	6,000	18,000	10,392	Iran	1980	1988	8 years	3% of 2–600,000 casualties.
Massacres during the Algerian Civil War	10,000	10,000	10,000	Algeria	1991	2002	11 years
War crimes during the Russian military intervention in the Syrian civil war	6,856	8,651	7,701	Syria	September 2015	present	4 years	See also: Russian military intervention in the Syrian Civil War.
War crimes during the Balochistan conflict	7,628	7,628	7,628	Balochistan, Pakistan	1937	present	81 years
September 11 attacks	2,977	2,977	2,977	United States	September 11, 2001	September 11, 2001	1 day
War crimes during the Russo-Ukrainian War	2,000	2,000	2,000	Donbas, Ukraine	2014	Present	7 years
Sabra and Shatila massacre	460	3,500	1,269	West Beirut, Lebanon	September 16, 1982	September 18, 1982	2 days	Massacre of a Palestinian refugee camp by Lebanese Christians.
Vukovar massacre	260	260	260	Croatia	November 20, 1991	November 20, 1991	1 day	Massacre of Croatian prisoners of war by Serb paramilitaries.
Fort Pillow massacre	235	235	235	Lauderdale County, Tennessee	April 12, 1864	April 12, 1864	1 day	Death toll includes both U.S. and Confederate dead. U.S. dead includes those both killed in combat and murdered by the Confederates afterwards.
Lawrence Massacre	204	204	204	Douglas County, Kansas	August 21, 1863	August 21, 1863	1 day	Death toll includes both U.S. and Confederate dead. Deadliest terrorist attack in U.S. history until the Oklahoma City bombing of 1995.

Political repression

Abuse of workers, forced laborers and slaves

This section lists deaths caused by poor labor conditions, executions for not performing labor satisfactorily, and deaths caused by mistreatment of the workforce both in transit and at work locations.

Event	Lowest estimate	Highest estimate	Geometric mean estimate	Location	From	Until	Duration	Notes
Atlantic slave trade	2,000,000	60,000,000	10,954,451	Africa, the Americas, and the Atlantic	1500s	1800s	200 years
Slavery in the Ottoman Empire	10,500,000	11,250,000	10,868,533	Eurasia, Middle East, North Africa	1450	1800	350 years	There is no concrete number for total number of persons killed due to Ottoman slavery, such as the Barbary slave trade, Nogai slave raids, or Zanj Slave Trade.
Laogai system	1,500,000	27,000,000	6,363,961	China	1945	1976	31 years	Laogai (勞ろう改あらため/劳改), the abbreviation for Láodòng Gǎizào (勞ろう動どう改造かいぞう/劳动改造かいぞう), which means "reform through labor", is a slogan of the Chinese criminal justice system and has been used to refer to the use of penal labour and prison farms in the People's Republic of China (PRC), which once took up more than half of the world's slaves. Laogai is different from laojiao, or re-education through labor, which was an administrative detention for a person who was not a criminal but had committed minor offenses, and was intended to reform offenders into law-abiding citizens. Persons detained under laojiao were detained in facilities that were separate from the general prison system of laogai. Both systems, however, involved penal labor.
Atrocities in the Congo Free State	3,000,000	13,000,000	6,244,998	Congo Free State	1885	1908	23 years	Private forces under the control of Leopold II of Belgium carried out mass murders, mutilations, and other crimes against the Congolese in order to encourage the gathering of valuable raw materials, principally rubber. The main cause of the population decline was disease and starvation, which was exacerbated by the social disruption caused by the Free State, such as population displacement and poor treatment. Additionally disease, famine and violence combined to reduce the birth-rate while excess deaths rose. Estimates of the death toll vary considerably because of the lack of a formal census before 1924, but a commonly cited figure of 10 million deaths was obtained by estimating a 50% decline in the total population during the Congo Free State and applying it to the total population of 10 million in 1924.
Trans-Saharan slave trade	3,500,000	6,000,000	4,582,576	Africa	5th century BC	1981	2400 years
Indian Ocean slave trade		17,000,000		Africa, Middle East, South Asia	25th century BC	1910	4400 years
Gulag system	1,053,829	6,000,000	2,514,552	Soviet Union	1930s	1950s	20 years	Gulag is an acronym for the organization that administered the forced labor system in the Soviet Union that became a colloquialism in the west for the camps themselves. The system was used to punish criminals, political dissidents, and prisoners of war. There is a growing consensus among scholars that, based on archival data, the number of deaths in the gulag system fall within the range 1.5 to 1.7 million.
Forced labor in North Korea	400,000	1,500,000	774,597	North Korea	1972	ongoing	49 years
Hacienda peonage and chattel slavery	173,000	2,015,000	590,419	Mexico	1900	1920	20 years	R.J. Rummel, coiner of the word "democide", estimated the mortality rate for Mexican Peonage, a form of debt labor, by comparing it to similar forced labor systems such as the Soviet Gulag, and then applying and reducing it accordingly to the population of Mexico at the time, coming up with an annual death rate of 69,000.
Forced labor of Koreans by Imperial Japan	270,000	810,000	467,654	Korea and Manchuria	1939	1945	6 years
Forced labour in the Portuguese Empire	325,000	325,000	325,000	Portuguese Empire	1900	1925	25 years
Barbary slave trade	245,000	380,000	305,123	Italy, Spain, and Portugal	1500s	1600s	100 years	– Part of Slavery in the Ottoman Empire
Slavery during the Amazon rubber boom	250,000	250,000	250,000	Amazon, Brazil	1900	1912	12 years
Construction of the Burma Railway	102,621	102,621	102,621	Burma	1943	1947	4 years	Forced labour was used in the construction of the Burma Railway. More than 180,000 Southeast Asian civilian labourers (Romusha) and 60,000 Allied prisoners of war (POWs) worked on the railway. Of these, estimates of Romusha deaths are little more than guesses, but probably about 90,000 died. 12,621 Allied POWs died during the construction. The dead POWs included 6,904 British personnel, 2,802 Australians, 2,782 Dutch, and 133 Americans.
Forced labour in the French colonial empire	14,000	200,000	52,915	Africa	1900	1940	40 years
Forced labor of Chinese contract workers in Peru	40,000	50,054	44,746	Peru	1849	1874	26 years	80,000 to 100,000 Chinese contract laborers, 95% of which were Cantonese and almost all of which were male, were sent mostly to the sugar plantations from 1849 to 1874, during the termination of slavery. They were to provide continuous labor for the coastal guano mines and especially for the coastal plantations where they became a major labor force (contributing greatly to the Peruvian guano boom) until the end of the century. While the coolies were believed to be reduced to virtual slaves, they also represented a historical transition from slave to free labor. A third group of Chinese workers was contracted for the construction of the railway from Lima to La Oroya and Huancayo. Chinese migrants were barred from using cemeteries reserved for Roman Catholics, and were instead buried at pre-Incan burial sites. Between 1849 and 1874 half the Chinese population of Peru perished due to abuse, exhaustion, and suicide caused by forced labor.
Forced labor of Allied POWs during World War II	35,000	35,000	35,000	In and around the Pacific	1939	1945	6 years	According to the Japanese military's own record, nearly 25% of 140,000 Allied POWs died while interned in Japanese prison camps, where they were forced to work (U.S. POWs died at a rate of 27%).
Forced labor across the Danube-Black Sea Canal in Romania	656	200,000	11,454	Romania	1949	1953	5 years	According to Marius Oprea, the death rate among political prisoners at the canal was extremely high; for instance, in the winter of 1951–52, there were one to three detainees dying every day at the Poarta Albă camp, near Galeșu village. The Presidential Commission for the Study of the Communist Dictatorship in Romania presented an estimate of several thousand deaths among the political prisoners used in the project, significantly higher than 656 officially recorded by an official report from 1968. Journalist Anne Applebaum had previously claimed that over 200,000 had died in its construction, as a result of exposure, unsafe equipment, malnutrition, accidents, tuberculosis and other diseases, over-work, etc., while political analyst Vladimir Socor had estimated the number of deaths to be "considerably in excess of 10,000". According to Andrei Muraru, a historian and adviser to Romanian President Klaus Iohannis, the project became known as The Death Canal (Canalul Morții). It has also been called "a cesspool of immense human suffering and mortality". Investigations conducted by the Association of Former Political Prisoners of Romania (AFDPR) Constanța, based on death records from the villages found along the Canal route, indicate 6,355 "Canal workers" (a euphemism for detainees) died during the 1949–1953 period.
Construction of the Suez Canal	938	120,000	10,609	Egypt	1859	1869	10 years	French diplomat Ferdinand de Lesseps had obtained many concessions from Isma'il Pasha, the Khedive of Egypt and Sudan in 1854–56 to build the Suez Canal. Some sources estimate the workforce at 30,000, but others estimate that 120,000 workers died over the ten years of construction due to malnutrition, fatigue, and disease, especially cholera.
FIFA World Cup-related abuses of human rights in Qatar	1,200	1,800	1,470	Qatar	2013	ongoing	8 years	Out of at least 100,000 laborers.
Rana Plaza factory collapse	1,134	1,134	1,134	Dhaka, Bangladesh	2013	2013	1 day	1,134 workers in the garment factory where reported dead and over 2,500 injured after it collapsed due to poor engineering and neglect of safety guidelines

Genocides, ethnic cleansing, religious persecution

Main articles: List of genocides by death toll and Genocides in history

This section lists events that entail the mass murder (or death caused by the forced eviction) of individuals on the basis of race, religion, or ethnicity.

Event	Lowest estimate	Highest estimate	Geometric mean estimate	Location	From	Until	Duration	Notes
Genocide of indigenous peoples in the Americas	2,000,000	80,000,000	12,649,111	America	1492	1996	504 years	While estimates for the overall Indigenous death toll vary widely, a study by scientists from University College London estimated that 56 million Indigenous peoples died in the Americas by 1600, accounting for 90% of their total population. The decline was caused primarily by diseases that were previously unknown to the continent, such as smallpox, along with slavery and war. The study also concluded that the resulting disruption of land use was so significant that it affected CO2 levels and affected climate change. See also: Spanish colonization of the Americas, Encomienda system, Mexican Indian Wars, List of Indian massacres, Putumayo genocide, Amazon rubber cycle
Generalplan Ost (World War II civilian casualties of the Soviet Union)	7,420,135	13,684,448	10,076,728	German-occupied Europe and Russia	1939	1945	6 years	Germany's extermination of civilian citizens of the Soviet Union. Numbers include Jewish victims and overlap with The Holocaust.
The Holocaust	5,100,000	7,000,000	5,974,947	German-occupied Europe	1941	1945	4 years	The systematic and bureaucratic genocide of European Jews by Germany, and its collaborators, exterminated approximately 1/3 of the global Jewish population, 2/3 of local European. Most commonly cited figures are between approximately 5.9 to 6.3 million killed.
Holodomor	2,711,000	7,811,000	4,601,698	Ukraine	1932	1933	1 year	The term "Ukrainian Genocide" usually refers to the man-made famine of 1932 through 1933, called the Holodomor, in which the grain of Ukrainians was confiscated to the point where they could not survive off the amount of grain they had, and were also restricted from fleeing their villages to find food under threat of execution or deportation into a Gulag camp. The term also includes the killing of Ukrainian intelligentsia during the Great Purge. The main advocate for this view was Raphael Lemkin, creator of the word genocide. Data from after the opening of the Soviet archives records deaths at 2.4 to 7.5 million in famine, 300,000 during the purge, and 1,100 from the Law of Spikelets. Some scholars dispute that the famine was deliberately engineered by the Soviet government or that it was a genocide. – Part of the Soviet famine of 1930–1933
Nazi crimes against the Polish nation	2,770,000	2,770,000	2,770,000	German-occupied Poland	1941	1945	4 years	Genocide of Poles during the invasion of Poland by Germany.
Three Alls policy	2,700,000	2,700,000	2,700,000	China	1940	1942	2 years	In a study published in 1996, historian Mitsuyoshi Himeta claims that the Three Alls policy, a scorched earth policy implemented by the Imperial Japanese Army on China, sanctioned by Emperor Hirohito himself, was both directly and indirectly responsible for the deaths of "more than 2.7 million" Chinese civilians.– Part of the Japanese war crimes
Cambodian genocide	1,386,734	3,400,000	2,171,381	Democratic Kampuchea	1975	1979	4 years	Deaths due to arbitrary torture, execution, starvation, and forced labor among the population of Cambodia under the rule of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge, including both killings of ethnic Khmer (the majority ethnic group) as well as a genocide of religious and ethnic minorities by the Khmer Rouge. Minimum death toll is the number of corpses found in the Killing Fields. Samuel Totten argues the mass killings were committed by fellow Khmer, and the Khmer were killed more in proportion to their population than other victims of the Khmer Rouge, making it more of a politicide. These killings have been described as autogenocide or civil genocide. According to Samuel Totten 1,325,000 ethnic Khmers were killed.
Kazakh famine of 1930–1933	1,500,000	2,300,000	1,857,418	Kazakhstan	1932	1933	1 year	– Part of the Soviet famine of 1930–1933
Rwandan and Burundian genocides	974,000	2,347,000	1,511,945	Burundi, Rwanda, and Zaire	1959	1997	38 years	Combined death toll of all genocides and other massacres between the Hutus and the Tutsis. This includes 1959, 1963, 1973 Tutsis Massacres in Rwanda, 1994 Rwandan Genocide, 1996–97 Massacre of Hutus in Zaire, 1972 Ikiza in Burundi, 1988 Hutus massacres, 1993 Burundi Genocide, and Ethnic violence in Burundi Civil War 1993–2006
Population transfer in the Soviet Union	1,124,203	1,912,392	1,466,259	Soviet Union	1920	1951	31 years	May include casualties of de-Cossackization.
Flight and expulsion of Germans (1944–1950)	500,000	3,000,000	1,224,745	Eastern Europe	1944	1950	6 years	Both direct and indirect deaths of ethnic German civilians and POWs during the redrawing of national borders after World War II.
Armenian genocide	800,000	1,700,000	1,166,190	Ottoman Empire	1914	1918	4 years	The first genocide of the 20th century to kill over 1 million people, this event was conducted by the Young Turks government of the Ottoman Empire under the administration of Talaat Pasha, Enver Pasha and Djemal Pasha.
Circassian genocide	600,000	2,000,000	1,095,445	Russian-occupied Circassia	1864	1867	3 years	90–97% of total Circassian population killed or deported by the Russian forces.
Persecution of Hazaras during the 1888–1893 uprisings of Hazaras	400,000	2,500,000	1,000,000	Afghanistan	1888	1893	5 years	Over 60% of the Hazara population were either massacred or displaced in Abdur Rahman Khan's crackdown of the Hazaras.
Punti–Hakka Clan Wars	1,000,000	1,000,000	1,000,000	China	1850	1867	17 years	After the fall of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom the Qing government cracked down on the Hakka ethnic group for allying with the kingdom slaughtering 30,000 per day. The death toll of the Punti-Hakka Clan Wars is estimated to be 1 million and there was also a mass execution done during the Taiping Rebellion. It is unclear whether these events refer to the Qing crackdown. If this death toll is applied to the estimated death rate, the massacre likely took place over the course of a month.
1971 Bangladesh genocide	200,000	3,000,000	774,597	East Pakistan	March 21, 1971	December 16, 1971	8 months, 2 weeks and 3 days	See also: Bangladesh Liberation War, Operation Searchlight, List of massacres in Bangladesh, Rape during the Bangladesh Liberation War
Rwandan genocide	500,000	1,100,000	741,620	Rwanda	April 7, 1994	July 19, 1994	103 days	The Rwandan Genocide may be the fastest killing of a national population in human history in a single annum, with 13% of the population killed in 100 days. If the Genocide had persisted all year at the same rate, then between 50% and 70% of the Rwandan population could have been killed.
French conquest of Algeria	500,000	1,000,000	707,107	Algeria	1830	1903	73 years	According to Ben Kiernan, "colonization and genocidal massacres proceeded in tandem." He estimates that within the first three decades (1830–1860) of French conquest, between 500,000 and 1 million Algerians, out of a total of 3 million, died due to war, massacres, disease and famine.
Partition of India	200,000	2,000,000	632,456	India	1947	1957	10 years	In the riots which preceded the partition in the Punjab Province, it is believed that between 200,000 and 2 million people were killed in the retributive genocide between Hindus and Muslims.
Romani Genocide	220,000	1,500,000	574,456	Nazi occupied Europe	1941	1945	4 years	The genocide of Romani by Nazi Germany and its puppet states.
Dzungar genocide	480,000	600,000	536,656	Dzungar Khanate	1755	1758	3 years	The mass extermination of Dzungar Mongols by the Qing dynasty under the order of the Qianlong Emperor.
Greek genocide	289,000	750,000	465,564	Ottoman Empire	1913	1922	9 years	Violent ethnic cleansing of Greeks from their historical homeland of Anatolia.
Albigensian Crusade	200,000	1,000,000	447,214	Languedoc, France	1209	1229	20 years	Raphael Lemkin, well known as the coiner of the term "genocide", referred to the Albigensian Crusade as "one of the most conclusive cases of genocide in religious history".
Genocide of indigenous peoples in Brazil	235,000	800,000	433,590	Brazil	1900	1985	85 years	– Part of the Genocide of indigenous peoples in the Americas
Libyan genocide	250,000	750,000	433,012	Italian Libya	1911	1943	32 years	The systematic destruction of the Libyan people and culture by the Italian Empire and its colonial authority; from 1929 to 1934 alone, 83,000–125,000 Libyans were massacred or died in Italian concentration camps. However, when applying the wider definition of genocide, during the entire Italian colonial period, it is estimated that anywhere from 250,000 to 750,000 Libyans died. Served as an inspiration for Nazi Germany for the Holocaust; Nazi German officials made several visits to Italian Libya and complimented the Italian methods as "successful" and would go on to apply them against Jews, Romani, Homosexuals, etc.
Occupation of Tibet	144,000	1,200,000	415,692	Tibet	1950	present	68 years	In 1960, the western-based nongovernmental International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) gave a report titled Tibet and the Chinese People's Republic to the United Nations. The report was prepared by the ICJ's Legal Inquiry Committee, composed of eleven international lawyers from around the world. This report accused the Chinese of the crime of genocide in Tibet, after nine years of full occupation, six years before the devastation of the cultural revolution began. The ICJ also documented accounts of massacres, tortures and killings, bombardment of monasteries, and extermination of whole nomad camps. Declassified Soviet archives provides data that Chinese communists, who received a great assistance in military equipment from the Soviets, broadly used Soviet aircraft for bombing monasteries and other punitive operations in Tibet.
Third Punic War	150,000	750,000	335,410	Tunisia	149 BC	146 BC	3 years	This war was a much smaller engagement than the two previous Punic Wars and focused on Tunisia, mainly on the Siege of Carthage, which resulted in the complete destruction of the city, the annexation of all remaining Carthaginian territory by Rome, and the death or enslavement of the entire Carthaginian population. The Third Punic War ended Carthage's independent existence. Classified by some historians as the first true genocide.
Genocide of Serbs in the Independent State of Croatia	200,000	500,000	316,228	Independent State of Croatia	1941	1945	4 years	Genocide of Serbs by the Ustaše government of the Independent State of Croatia
Chinese genocide under Khmer Rouge	215,000	225,000	219,943	Democratic Kampuchea	1975	1979	4 years	More than half of the Chinese population of Cambodia were slaughtered by the Khmer Rouge. – Part of the Cambodian genocide
Cham genocide under Khmer Rouge	90,000	500,000	212,132	Democratic Kampuchea	1975	1979	4 years	The genocide slaughtered over 70% of the Cham Muslim population in Cambodia according to themselves. According to Ben Kiernan, Cham were subjected to the most brutal treatment of those persecuted by the Khmer Rouge and subjected to the slaughter of 36% of their population according to Samuel Totten. – Part of the Cambodian genocide
Assyrian genocide	150,000	300,000	212,132	Ottoman Empire	1914	1920	6 years	One of the various genocides and ethnic cleansings the Ottoman Empire committed under the administration of the Young Turks.
Massacres of Hutus during the First Congo War	200,000	220,000	209,762	Zaire	1996	1997	1 year	During the First Congo War, Rwanda was able to destroy refugee camps, which the génocidaires had been using as their safe-bases, and forcibly repatriate Tutsi to Rwanda. During this process, Rwandan and aligned forces committed multiple atrocities, mainly against Hutu refugees. The true extent of the abuses is unknown because the AFDL and RPF carefully managed NGO and press access to areas where atrocities were thought to have occurred; however, Amnesty International claimed as many as 200,000 Rwandese Hutu refugees were massacred by them and the Rwandan Defence Forces and aligned forces. The United Nations similarly documented mass killings of civilians by Rwandan, Ugandan and the ADFL soldiers in the DRC Mapping Exercise Report.
Ran Min's "Hu culling" order	200,000	200,000	200,000	Northern China	349	350	1 year	Ancient Chinese texts record that General Ran Min ordered the culling of the Wu Hu, especially the Jie people in the fourth century AD. People with racial characteristics such as high-bridged noses and bushy beards were killed, many of whom were mistakenly-identified Han Chinese; in total, 200,000 were reportedly massacred.
Great Famine of Mount Lebanon	200,000	200,000	200,000	Mount Lebanon	1915	1918	3 years	One of the various genocides and ethnic cleansings the Ottoman Empire committed under the administration of the Young Turks.
Cromwellian conquest of Ireland	200,000	200,000	200,000	Ireland	1649	1653	4 years	The Parliamentarian reconquest of Ireland was brutal, and Cromwell is still a hated figure in Ireland. The extent to which Cromwell, who was in direct command for the first year of the campaign, was responsible for the atrocities is debated to this day. Some historians argue that the actions of Cromwell were within the then-accepted rules of war, or were exaggerated or distorted by later propagandists. These arguments, in turn, have been challenged by others.
Caste War of Yucatán	200,000	200,000	200,000	Yucatán Peninsula, Mexico	1847	1901	54 years	The Caste War of Yucatán against the population of European descent, called Yucatecos, who held political and economic control of the region. Adam Jones wrote, "Genocidal atrocities on both sides cost up to 200,000 killed."– Part of the Genocide of indigenous peoples in the Americas
Destruction of Kurdish villages during the Iraqi Arabization campaign	87,500	388,100	184,279	Iraq	1977	1991	14 years	87,500 to 388,100 Kurds were killed in the destruction of Kurdish villages during the Iraqi Arabization campaign including: 2,500 to 12,500 in the Ba'athist Arabization campaigns in North Iraq, 10,000 to 25,000 were killed during the Feyli Kurds operation, 5,000 to 8,000 Kurds were disappeared in the 1983 Barzani killings, 50,000 to 100,000 (although Kurdish sources have cited a higher figure of 182,000) more Kurds were massacred in the Anfal genocide, and at least 20,000 were killed during the 1991 Iraqi uprising notwithstanding an additional 48,400 to 140,600 Kurdish refugees that starved to death along the Iranian and Turkish borders.
Massacres of Albanians in the Balkan Wars	120,000	270,000	180,000	Ottoman Empire	October 1912	August 1913	9 months	Mass murder and ethnic cleansing of Albanian civilians by Serbian and Montenegrin troops during the Balkan Wars
Polish Operation of the NKVD	110,000	250,000	165,831	Soviet Union	1937	1938	1 year	The operation from 1937 to 1938 to eliminate the Polish minority in the Soviet Union.
Deportation of the Chechens and Ingush	123,000	200,000	156,844	Soviet Union	February 1944	March 1944	1 month	Expulsion of the whole of the Vainakh (Chechen and Ingush) populations of the North Caucasus to Central Asia.
Hamidian massacres	80,000	300,000	154,919	Ottoman Empire	1894	1896	2 years	Mass murder of Armenian (and other Christian) civilians under Sultan Abdul Hamid II that foreshadowed the Armenian genocide.
Massacres of Albanians in World War I	85,676	250,000	146,352	Principality of Albania, Kosovo, Vardar Macedonia	1914	1918	4 years	Mass murder and ethnic cleansing of Albanian civilians during the First World War by Serbian, Montenegrin, Greek and Bulgarian troops
Indonesian occupation of East Timor	60,000	308,000	135,941	East Timor	1974	1999	25 years	The civilian deaths under the Indonesian occupation of East Timor, including killings, disappearances, and deaths caused by conflict-related hunger and illness, resulted in an enormous proportional loss of life upon the island some estimating as high as 13% up to almost a third to almost 44% of the population.
1972 Genocide of Burundian Hutus	80,000	210,000	129,615	Burundi	1972	1972	?	Communal mass murder of Hutus by their rival tribe the Tutsi in Burundi. – Part of the Rwandan and Burundian genocides
Massacres of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia	60,000	300,000	134,164	Volhyn and Eastern Galicia	1943	1944	1 year	Genocide of Polish civilian population in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA).
Pogroms in the Russian Empire	52,000	254,500	115,039	Russian Empire	1903–1906	1917–1922	19 years	The massacres of Jews in the Russian Empire reached their peak in the early 20th century, through the killing of thousands from 1903 to 1906 and tens to hundreds of thousands from 1917 to 1922.
Kurdish Rebellions in Turkey	33,835	357,000	109,905	Turkey	1921	present	97 years	All casualties from the various Kurdish uprisings against the Turkish state. 7,594 to 40,000: Dersim rebellion 15,000 to 250,000: Sheikh Said rebellion 6,741 to 20,000: Modern Turk-Kurd conflict 4,500 to 47,000: Ararat rebellion
Deportation of the Crimean Tatars	100,000	100,000	100,000	Soviet Union	1944	1945	1 year	Often considered an ethnic cleansing, and Ukraine considers the event genocide.
Massacres of European colonists during the rebellions of Túpac Amaru II and Túpac Katari	100,000	100,000	100,000	Present day Peru	1780	1782	2 years	The indigenous rebellions of Túpac Amaru II and Túpac Katari against the Spanish between 1780 and 1782, cost over 100,000 colonists' lives in Peru and Upper Peru (present-day Bolivia).
Spanish repressions of Dutch Protestants	100,000	100,000	100,000	The Low Countries	1566	1609	43 years	100,000 Dutch Protestants massacred under Charles V and Philip II during the Eighty Years' War.
Darfur genocide	63,000 10,000 (Sudan)	450,000 300,000 (U.N.)	96,033	Darfur, Sudan	2003	present	15 years	The War in Darfur is a major armed conflict in the Darfur region of Sudan that began in February 2003 when the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) and Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) rebel groups began fighting the government of Sudan, which they accused of oppressing Darfur's non-Arab population. The government responded to attacks by carrying out a campaign of ethnic cleansing against Darfur's non-Arabs. This resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of civilians and the indictment of Sudan's president Omar al-Bashir for genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court.
Al-Anfal genocide	50,000	182,000	95,394	Iraq	1986	1989	3 years	The Kurdish genocide led by Ali Hassan al-Majid under the order of Saddam Hussein.
Atrocities against Harkis after the Algerian War	50,000	150,000	86,603	Algeria	1962	?	?	The Harkis were seen as traitors by many Algerians, and many of those who stayed behind suffered severe reprisals after independence. French historians estimate that somewhere between 50,000 and 150,000 Harkis and members of their families were killed by the FLN or by lynch mobs in Algeria, often in atrocious circumstances or after torture.
Aktion T4	70,273	93,521	81,068	Nazi Germany	1939	1941	2 years	A euthanasia program in Nazi Germany used to purge those deemed genetically deficient.
Racial violence during the Rwandan Revolution	50,000 Hutus and tens of thousands of Tutsis			Burundi and Rwanda	1959	1962	3 years
Persecution of Albanians in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia	80,000	80,000	80,000	Kingdom of Yugoslavia	1918	1941	23 years
Conquest of the Canary Islands	80,000	80,000	80,000	Canary Islands	1402	1520	103 years
Guatemalan genocide	35,000	166,000	76,223	Guatemala	1960	1996	36 years	According to the Historical Clarification Commission, 140,000 to 200,000 were killed or disappeared, and at least 42,275 were killed by human rights violations during the Guatemalan Civil War, of which 93% were from officially sanctioned government terror and 83% of the victims were Maya. – Part of the Genocide of indigenous peoples in the Americas
Annexation of Hyderabad	27,000	200,000	73,485	Hyderabad State, India	1948	1948	5 days
De-Cossackization	5,000	1,000,000	70,711	Former Russian Empire	1917	1933	16 years	Violent class purge, ethnic cleansing, and mass murder of Cossacks, especially Kuban and Don Cossacks, by the Bolsheviks.
Effacer le tableau	60,000	70,000	64,807	Democratic Republic of Congo	1998	2003	5 years	Pygmy peoples were murdered en masse as they were regarded as subhumans.
Religious Killings of Christians in Nigeria	62,000	62,000	62,000	Nigeria	1999	present	24 years	Since the turn of the 21st century, 62,000 Nigerian Christians have been killed by the terrorist group Boko Haram, Fulani herdsmen and other groups. The killings have been referred to as a silent genocide.
Herero and Namaqua genocide	34,000	110,000	61,156	German South-West Africa	1904	1908	4 years	Genocides of the Herero and Nama peoples by the German Empire during the Herero Wars.
Bosnian Genocide and other ethnic cleansings during the Yugoslav Wars	52,856	64,917	58,577	Yugoslavia and successor states	1991	2001	10 years	All civilians killed in the Yugoslav Wars including events such as the Srebrenica massacre, Vukovar massacre, Gospić massacre, and other atrocities. 69.8% to 82% of civilian victims of the Bosnian War were Bosniak. During the War in Croatia, 43.4% of the killed on the Croatian side were civilians. 34,764 to 40,330: Bosnian War 10,844 to 14,661: Kosovo War 7,158 to 9,836: Croatian War of Independence 90: 2001 insurgency in the Republic of Macedonia
Genocide against Bosniaks and Croats by the Chetniks	50,000	68,000	58,310	Kingdom of Yugoslavia	1941	1945	4 years
Italian Pacification of Libya	56,000	56,000	56,000	Libya	1923	1932	9 years	The pacification campaign led to the deaths of one quarter of the 225,000 people in region of Cyrenaica. The Italians also expelled half of the region's population.
Massacres of Polish civilians during the Warsaw Uprising	50,000	60,000	54,772	Occupied Poland	August 5, 1944	August 12, 1944	1 week	Polish fatalities in districts of Wola and Ochota committed during Warsaw Uprising
1993 ethnic violence in Burundi	50,000	50,000	50,000	Burundi	1993	1993	?	Communal mass murder of Tutsis by their rival tribe the Hutu in Burundi. – Part of the Rwandan and Burundian genocides
Witch trials in the early modern period	20,000	100,000	44,721	Europe	1400	1800	300 years
British concentration camps during the Second Boer War	26,000	40,000	32,249	Transvaal	1900	1902	2 years	Lord Kitchener led the British army against the Boer Republics in the Second Boer War in Southern Africa. In an attempt to pacify Boer guerrillas, he targeted their families, and 116,000 Boer women and children were captured and jailed by the British, Within 2 years, 22,074 children died and 4,177 women died due to neglect by the British. 115,000 black people were separately jailed, of whom 15,000 died in prison camps.
Burning of Smyrna	10,000	100,000	31,623	Smyrna, Ottoman Empire	September 9, 1922	September 24, 1922	15 days	A fire began in Smyrna four days after the Turkish military captured the city on 9 September, effectively ending the Greco-Turkish War, more than three years after the Greek army had landed troops at Smyrna on 15 May 1919. 10,000 to 100,000 Greeks and Armenians died in the fire and accompanying massacres committed by the Turks. The responsibility for the fire is a controversial issue; some sources blame Turks, and some sources blame Greeks or Armenians.
Austro-Hungarian atrocities during the occupation of Serbia in World War I	30,000	30,000	30,000	Serbia	1914	1915	1 year	Mass executions of Serbian civilians by Austro-Hungarian forces
Persecution of Shias by the Islamic State	Tens of thousands	Tens of thousands	Tens of thousands	Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan	2003	present	16 years	Ethnic cleansing, execution, forced conversion, rape, and enslavement of Shias by ISIL. One of the first instances was the Imam Ali Mosque bombing in Najaf.
Massacres of Kyrgyz people during the Central Asian revolt of 1916	3,000	270,000	28,460	Russian Empire, Kyrgyzstan	1916	1916	7 months	In 1916, there was an uprising and crackdown of Kyrgyzstanis against and by Tsarist Russia in what is now known as the Urkun. A public commission in Kyrgyzstan called the crackdown of 1916 that killed 100,000 to 270,000 Kyrgyzstanis a genocide though Russia rejected this characterization. Russian sources put the death toll at 3,000.
Captivity of Mangalorean Catholics at Seringapatam	10,000	65,000	25,495	Canara	1784	1799	15 years	A 15-year imprisonment of Mangalorean Catholics and other Christians at Seringapatam in the Indian region of Canara by Tipu Sultan, the de facto ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore.
1988 Burundian massacre of Hutus	25,000	25,000	25,000	Burundi	1988	1988	?	– Part of the Rwandan and Burundian genocides
Parsley massacre	17,000	35,000	24,393	Dominican Republic	October 2, 1937	October 8, 1937	6 days	Genocidal massacre of people who say perejil (Spanish: "parsley") in a French accent in order to determine if they are Afro-Haitian or Afro-Dominican.
Australian frontier wars	22,000	22,500	22,249	Australia	1788	1934	146 years	Wars between Indigenous Australians and settlers in which killed about 20,000 aboriginal and 2,500 settlers in combat or massacres.See also: List of massacres of Indigenous Australians
Ethnic cleansing of Georgians in Abkhazia	17,000	28,000	21,817	Abkhazia and Georgia	1992	1993	1 year	The ethnic cleansing of Georgians in Abkhazia, also known as the "massacres of Georgians in Abkhazia", and "genocide of Georgians in Abkhazia" Refers to ethnic cleansing, massacres and forced mass expulsion of thousands of ethnic Georgians
Dersim rebellion	7,594	40,000	17,429	Dersim, Turkey	1937	1937	8 months	The Dersim massacre was a massacre of Kurdish people (Alevi Kurmanj and Zaza) by the Turkish government in the Dersim region of eastern Turkey, which includes parts of Tunceli Province, Elazığ Province, and Bingöl Province. The massacre occurred after a rebellion led by Seyid Riza against the Turkification policies of the Turkish government. As a result of the Turkish military campaign against the rebellion, thousands of Alevi Zazas died and many others were internally displaced due to the conflict. – Part of the Kurdish Rebellions in Turkey
1966 anti-Igbo pogrom	10,000	30,000	17,321	Nigeria	May 29, 1966	October 1966	4 months, 2 days
Indian massacres in the United States frontiers	16,349	16,349	16,349	What is now the United States	1511	1890	379 years	It is difficult to determine the total number of people who died as a result of Indian massacres. However, one book, The Wild Frontier: Atrocities during the American-Indian War from Jamestown Colony to Wounded Knee, presents an estimate by counting every recorded atrocity in the area that would eventually become the continental United States, from first contact (1511) to the closing of the frontier (1890). The parameters were limited to the intentional and indiscriminate murder, torture, or mutilation of civilians, the wounded, and prisoners. The results revealed that 7,193 people died from atrocities perpetrated by those of European descent, and 9,156 people died from atrocities perpetrated by Native Americans.– Part of the Genocide of indigenous peoples in the Americas
Persecution of Biharis in Bangladesh	1,000	150,000	12,247	Bangladesh	1971	1971	?	Most extreme episode of the massacres of Biharis by Bengali mobs
Gukurahundi	3,750	30,000	10,607	Zimbabwe	1983	1987	5 years	Ethnic cleansing and executions of members of the Ndebele by the Robert Mugabe's Fifth Brigade.
Deaths of indigenous children in the Canadian residential schools system	3,201	32,010	10,122	Canada	1876	1996	120 years	– Part of the Genocide of indigenous peoples in the Americas
Vietnamese genocide by Khmer Rouge	10,000	10,000	10,000	Democratic Kampuchea	1975	1979	4 years	100% of the Vietnamese in Cambodia were slaughtered during the genocide, according to Samuel Totten. – Part of the Cambodian genocide
Thai Genocide by Khmer Rouge	8,000	8,000	8,000	Democratic Kampuchea	1975	1979	4 years	40% of Thai in Cambodia were killed during the Cambodian genocide according to Samuel Totten. – Part of the Cambodian genocide
1946 Bihar riots	2,000	30,000	7,746	Bihar, British India	October 30, 1946	November 7, 1946	8 days	Killings of Bihari Muslims by Bengali Hindus in retaliation to the Direct Action Day riots.
Noakhali riots	5,000	10,000	7,071	Noakhali Region, Bengal, British India	October 1946	November 1946	1 month	Killings of Bengali Hindus by Bengali Muslims in retaliation to the Direct Action Day riots.
Sétif and Guelma massacre	1,020	45,000	6,775	Algeria	1945	1945	?
Genocide of native Tasmanians	3,000	15,000	6,708	Australia	1803	1905	102 years	The last full-blooded Aboriginal Tasmanian was either Truganini or Fanny Cochrane Smith, whose date of death is used here to denote the end of the genocide. In 2017, there were between 6,000 and 23,000 mixed-race individuals of Aboriginal Tasmanian descent.
Massacres of Arabs and Indians during the Zanzibar Revolution	2,000	20,000	6,325	Zanzibar	January 12, 1964	February 2, 1964	~21 days	Thousands of Arabs and Indians were massacred during the Zanzibar Revolution
Foibe Massacres	11,000	3,000	5,745	Istria	1943	1945	3 years	The foibe massacres were mass killings both during and after World War II, mainly committed by Yugoslav Partisans against the local ethnic Italian population, mainly in Venezia Giulia, Istria and Dalmatia. The term refers to the victims who were often thrown alive into foibas (deep natural sinkholes; by extension, it also was applied to the use of mine shafts, etc. to hide the bodies).
1964 East Pakistan riots	5,590	5,690	5,640	East Pakistan	January 2, 1964	March 28, 1964	2 months, 26 days	All casualties from the various riots in East Pakistan during the year 1964. Khulna: 200–300 Dhaka: 1,000 Narayangang: 3,500 Bhulta: 267 Golkandi: 623
Simele massacre	5,000	6,000	5,477	Simele, Kingdom of Iraq	August 7, 1933	August 11, 1933	4 days	The Simele massacre inspired Raphael Lemkin to create the concept of genocide.
1950 East Pakistan riots	4,803	4,833	4,818	East Bengal	February 1950	March 1950	1 month	All casualties from the various riots in East Pakistan during the year 1950. 70–100: Nachole 215: Dhaka 2,500: Barisal 17: Rajshahi 2,000: Mymensingh 1: Jessore
1984 anti-Sikh riots	2,800	8,000	4,733	India	October 31, 1984	November 3, 1984	3 days	A series of pogroms against Sikhs primarily done by members of the Indian National Congress party due to the assassination of the prime minister.
Nellie massacre	2,191	10,000	4,681	Assam, India	Six hours on February 18, 1983	Six hours on February 18, 1983	6 hours	Killings of 2191 Bengali Musims after Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's decision to give 4 million Bengali Muslims in Assam the right to vote
Direct Action Day	4,000	4,000	4,000	India	August 16, 1946	August 18, 1946	2 days	Also known as the Great Calcutta Killings, a day of widespread riot and manslaughter between Hindus and Muslims in the city of Calcutta (now known as Kolkata) in the Bengal province of British India.
Laotian genocide by Khmer Rouge	4,000	4,000	4,000	Democratic Kampuchea	1975	1979	4 years	40% of Laotians in Cambodia were killed during the Cambodian genocide according to Samuel Totten.– Part of the Cambodian genocide
1804 Haiti massacre	3,000	5,000	3,873	Haiti	Early February 1804	April 22, 1804	?	Genocide of French people in Haiti.
Trail of Tears	2,000	6,000	3,464	United States	1830	1850	20 years	The forced relocation of various Native American tribes under the order of Andrew Jackson. – Part of the Genocide of indigenous peoples in the Americas
Genocide of Yazidis by the Islamic State	2,000	5,000	3,162	Sinjar, Iraq and Syria	2014	present	4 years	Ethnic cleansing, execution, forced conversion, rape, and enslavement of Yazidis by ISIL
Selk'nam genocide	2,500	3,900	3,122	Tierra del Fuego, Chile	Late 1800s	Early 1900s	?	Genocide of Selknam Native Chilean tribe. – Part of the Genocide of indigenous peoples in the Americas
Genocide of Christians by the Islamic State	Thousands	Thousands	Thousands	Worldwide	2014	present	4 years	Ethnic cleansing, execution, forced conversion, rape, and enslavement of Christians by ISIL. In Iraq, the genocide started before 2014, as exemplified by the 2010 Baghdad church massacre
Expulsion of Cham Albanians	1,200	5,000	2,449	Thesprotia, Greece	1944	1945	1 year	Forced migration of Cham Albanians from Greece to Albania.
Massacre of protesters at the Demolition of the Babri Masjid	2,000	2,000	2,000	Ayodhya, India	1992	1993	1 year	The destruction of a prominent mosque in India by Hindu extremists and killings of Muslim protesters.
2002 Gujarat riots	1,044	2,977	1,763	Gujarat, India	February 2002	March 2002	1 month	Minimum death toll includes 790 Muslim death toll. Both death tolls include 254 Hindu deaths. Maximum death toll includes 223 presumed mixing as dead, and a higher 2,500 Muslim death toll.
Conquest of the Desert	1,300	1,300	1,300	Argentina	Mid-1870s	1884	?	Military campaign, directed mainly by General Julio Argentino Roca, which established Argentine dominance over Patagonia, then inhabited by indigenous peoples. – Part of the Genocide of indigenous peoples in the Americas
Black War	878	878	878	Australia	Mid-1820s	1832	?	– Part of the Genocide of native Tasmanians
Massacre of Salsipuedes	40	40	40	Uruguay	April 11, 1831	The same day	1 day	Largest event of extermination of the Charrúa people. Most of the tribe was either killed or then sold as slaves to human zoos in Europe that day. – Part of the Genocide of indigenous peoples in the Americas

Political leaders and regimes

This section lists deaths attributed to certain political leaders, deaths are from both the conditions within the country due to national policy, and active killings by forces loyal to the leader in question.

Leader(s)	Lowest estimate	Highest estimate	Geom. mean estimate	Location	From	Until	Duration	Notes
Various Colonial regimes of Europe	38,873,270	367,015,746	119,444,976	worldwide	1402	1960	559 years	List will not be exhaustive due to the scope and breadth of the event: Conquest of the Canary Islands 80,000 Genocide of indigenous peoples in the Americas 2–80 million Atlantic slave trade 2–60 million British colonial rule in the Indian subcontinent 51 million-165 million Atrocities in the Congo Free State 3–13 million Forced labour in the Portuguese Empire 325,000 Slavery during the Amazon rubber boom 250,000 Forced labour in the French colonial empire 14,000–200,000 Forced labor of Chinese contract workers in Peru 40,000–50,054 French colonial rule in Algeria 1 million-5.6 million War crimes during the Second Italo-Ethiopian War 60,000–485,000 Italian colonial rule in Libya 250,000–750,000 (see Libyan genocide) Colonialism of the Third Reich 13,518,250–25,495,692+ Herero and Namaqua genocide 34,000–110,000 Philippine–American War 234,000 Indian Rebellion of 1857 806,000 Maji Maji Rebellion 75,000–300,000 Circassian genocide 600,000 – 2 million Massacres of Kyrgyz people during the Central Asian revolt of 1916 3,000–270,000 Sétif and Guelma massacre 1,020–45,000 Genocide of native Tasmanians 3,000–15,000 Cromwellian conquest of Ireland 200,000 Great Irish Famine 750,000 – 1.5 million Iranian famine of 1917–1919 2–10 million Cuban War of Independence Famine 300,000 Japanese Imperialism 30 million This list is incomplete you can help by adding to it
Various Marxist-Leninist leaders	27,928,221	148,849,128	64,475,510	worldwide	1917	present	104 years	Siad Barre 50,000 to 100,000 Mengistu Haile Mariam 225,000 to 2 million North Korea 710,000 to 3.5 million Vladimir Lenin 1,101,000 to 10,442,168 Joseph Stalin 9,073,394 to 42,673,000 Hungarian People's Republic 7,000 to 13,748 Czechoslovak Socialist Republic 24,000 to 181,000 Socialist Republic of Romania 100,000 to 920,000 People's Republic of Bulgaria 31,000 to 220,000 Communist Yugoslavia 60,000 to 802,000 Communist Afghanistan 500,000 to 2 million Mao Zedong 14,109,560 to 80,170,000 Deng Xiaoping Between the years: 1976 and 1986 (Death toll included with Mao) Communist Mozambique 83,000 to 250,000 Cuba 29,919 to 141,000 Enver Hoxha 5,000 to 11,180 Vietnam 145,225 to 1,082,000 Pol Pot 1,386,734 to 3,400,000 People's Republic of Angola 100,000 to 200,000 Heng Samrin 68,000 to 383,000 Mongolian People's Republic 35,000 to 200,000 Sandinista National Liberation Front 5000 Polish People's Republic 10,000 to 54,000 Communist Greece 14,000 to 25,000 Hungarian Soviet Republic 5,032 Communist Laos 46,000 to 77,000 Zanzibar 3,000 to 13,000 South Yemen 1,000 East Germany 327 to 70,000 See also: Mass killings under communist regimes
Genghis Khan, Timur and Kublai Khan	40,000,000	80,000,000	56,568,542	Eurasia	1206	1405	199 years	Due to the lack or records and time span in which they occurred, estimates of the violence associated with the conquests of the Mongol Empire and its predecessor states vary considerably not including the spread of plague to Europe, West Asia, or China it is possible that between 20 and 40 million people were killed between 1206 and 1405 during the various campaign's of Genghis Khan, Kublai Khan, and Timur According to Matthew White, up to 60 million people were killed during Genghis Khan's invasions and an additional maximum of 20 million under Timurid campaigns, totaling a higher figure of 80 million people, even not considering the fatalities of Kublai Khan's invasions.
Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping	14,109,560	80,170,000+	33,632,773	People's Republic of China	1923	1986	63 years	Critics of Mao Zedong have argued Mao's China saw unprecedented losses of human life through mismanaged economic policies such as the Great Leap Forward, slave labor through the Laogai, violent political purges such as the Cultural Revolution and class extermination through land reform. Estimates For each event/policy include: Great Chinese Famine: 11 to 55 million Laogai: 1.5 to 27 million Land Reform: 200,000 to 5 million Campaign to Suppress Counterrevolutionaries: 712,000 to 2 million Sufan movement: 53,000, Socialist Education Movement: 77,560 Cultural Revolution: 400,000 to 3,420,000 1959 Tibetan uprising: 85,000 to 87,000, Purges in the Jiangxi–Fujian Soviet: At least 5,000 to <700,000 See also: Anti-Bolshevik League incident and Futian incident Yan'an Rectification Movement: 10,000 Siege of Changchun: 120,000 to 200,000 Events such as the Siege of Changchun, Yan'nan Rectification Movements, and the Purges in the Jiangxi-Fujian Soviet occurred while Mao occupied territories of China, but before the establishment of the PRC. Deaths from land reform also occurred during and after the Civil War. The death toll for the Laogai prison system is difficult to distinguish between deaths from other events/policies and the regimes of Deng and Mao. See also: History of the People's Republic of China (1949–1976)
Various Fascist leaders	16,481,274	41,233,037	26,068,621	worldwide	1922	1975	55 years	Adolf Hitler, 12,883,250 to 24,895,692+ Hideki Tojo, 3 million to 14 million Benito Mussolini, 158,000 to 750,000 Francisco Franco, 195,000 to 227,321 Maximiliano Hernández Martínez, 10,000 to 40,000 Rafael Trujillo, 50,000 Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, 60,000 to 300,000 from the Massacres of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia, 20,000 Ukrainians during Insurgency in western Ukraine Ustaše, 300,000 to 1,088,000 Miklós Horthy and Arrow Cross Party (included with Adolf Hitler) Iron Guard (included with Adolf Hitler) Greek Junta, 24 The overwhelming majority of all deaths caused by fascism occurred between 1929 and 1945. Marking the period between The Wall Street Crash and World War II.
Hong Xiuquan	20,000,000	20,000,000	20,000,000	China	1850	1864	14 years	Deaths owing to war crimes, and famine caused by the Taiping Rebellion
Joseph Stalin	9,073,394	42,672,000	19,676,887	Soviet Union	1922	1953	31 years	The millions killed by the regime of Joseph Stalin through famine, purges, labor camps, population transfer, deportations, and NKVD massacres. The minimum death toll (to the left) uses the minimum post-archive calculations from after the fall of the Soviet regime of those not killed in famine which range from four to ten million Robert Conquest, writer of the book The Great Terror, first stated an estimate of 30 million, then a few years later lowering it to 20 million, and finally saying that no fewer than 15 million perished during the entire history of the USSR. Following the collapse of the USSR and the opening of the archives, scholars have reached lower death tolls. Timothy D. Snyder in 2011 said that Stalin approximately killed 6 million to 9 million Historian Stephen Kotkin in 2018 stated that Stalin together and Lenin are responsible for 18–20 million deaths The minimum death toll uses post-archive calculations from after the fall of the Soviet regime, while higher estimates are based on demographic calculations of population loss. Modern Estimates for each event include. Soviet famine of 1930–1933: 5.5-8.7 million Gulags: 1,053,829–6 million Executions: 799,455−1.5 million Population transfer in the Soviet: 839,521–1.5 million Expelled Germans: 300,000–360,000 Axis Prisoners of War: 580,589–2.3 million Those killed in the Soviet repressions of Polish citizens (1939–1946) and the occupation of the Baltic states are included with the deaths from executions and population transfer. See also Excess mortality in the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin
Adolf Hitler	12,883,250	24,895,692+	17,909,144	German-occupied Europe	1934	1945	11 years	The estimate includes The Holocaust against the Jews, plus the genocide and mass murder of Gypsies, Serbs, East Slavs, disabled people, homosexuals, Freemasons, POWs, and the Jehovah's Witnesses 4.9–6.2 million Jews killed (two-thirds to 78% of European Jews killed) 7,007,000 to 17,244,692 killed by Generalplan Ost and Hunger Plan 2,470,000 to 11,149,692 Non Jewish and Roma Soviet civilians killed (500,000 died from Bombing of Soviet civilians alone) 2.8–3.325 million Non-Jewish Soviet POWs killed by Nazis 1.8–2.77 million Poles and other Non-Jews killed by Nazis in Poland 130,000 to 500,000 killed in Porajmos (1/4 of Roma population) 300,000 Great Famine (Greece) 275,000 to 300,000 killed in Aktion T4 80,000 to 200,000 killed in Elimination of Freemasons 77,000 members of German resistance against Nazism executed 20,000 to 25,000 Slovenes 18,000 to 22,000 Dutch famine of 1944–45 7,000 Spanish Republican killed 5,000 to 15,000 Homosexuals killed 1,250 to 5,000 Jehovah's Witnesses killed
Hirohito, various leaders	3,000,000	14,000,000	6,480,741	In and around East and South East Asia, Oceania and the Pacific	1937	1945	8 years	If total casualties for these conflicts are assigned exclusively to Japanese aggression the toll could reach some 30 million deaths. See also: Japanese war crimes
Leopold II of Belgium	3,000,000	13,000,000	6,244,998	Congo Free State	1885	1908	23 years	Private forces under the control of Leopold II of Belgium carried out mass murders, mutilations, and other crimes against the Congolese in order to encourage the gathering of valuable raw materials, principally rubber. The main cause of the population decline was disease and starvation, which was exacerbated by the social disruption caused by the Free State, such as population displacement and poor treatment. Additionally disease, famine and violence combined to reduce the birth-rate while excess deaths rose. Estimates of the death toll vary considerably due to the lack of a formal census before 1924, but a commonly cited figure of 10 million deaths was obtained by estimating a 50% decline in the total population during the Congo Free State and applying it to the total population of 10 million in 1924. See also: Atrocities in the Congo Free State
Vladimir Lenin	1,101,000	10,442,168	3,390,697	Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic	1917	1922	5 years	Including low and high estimates for the Kronstadt rebellion, Red Terror, Tambov Rebellion, and Russian famine of 1921–1922. All estimates are available in their respective articles.
Ranavalona I	2,500,000	2,500,000	2,500,000	Madagascar	1829	1842	13 years	Putting an end to most foreign trade relationships, Ranavalona I pursued a policy of self-reliance, made possible through frequent use of the long-standing tradition of fanompoana—forced labor in lieu of tax payments in money or goods. Ranavalona continued the wars of expansion conducted by her predecessor, Radama I, in an effort to extend her realm over the entire island, and imposed strict punishments on those who were judged as having acted in opposition to her will. Due in large part to loss of life throughout the years of military campaigns, high death rates among fanompoana workers, and harsh traditions of justice under her rule, the population of Madagascar is estimated to have declined from around 5 million to 2.5 million between 1833 and 1839, and from 750,000 to 130,000 between 1829 and 1842 in Imerina. These statistics have contributed to a strongly unfavorable view of Ranavalona's rule in historical accounts.
Chiang Kai-Shek	480,643	10,214,000	2,215,691	Republic of China	1928	1946	18 years	Higher death toll is primarily attributed to conscription campaigns and grain confiscations. The minimum death toll is based on minimum calculations from the Kuomintang anti-communist massacres (40,643), 1938 Changsha fire (30,000), the flooding of the Yellow River (400,000), and the February 28 incident (10,000).
Pol Pot	1,386,734	3,400,000	2,171,381	Cambodia	1975	1979	4 years	Deaths due to arbitrary torture, execution, starvation, and forced labor among the population of Cambodia under the rule of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge, including both killings of ethnic Khmer (the majority ethnic group) as well as a genocide of religious and ethnic minorities by the Khmer Rouge. Minimum death toll is the number of corpses found in the Killing Fields.See also: Cambodian genocide
The Young Turks	1,489,000	3,047,000	2,130,019	Ottoman Empire	1913	1922	9 years	Under the Young Turks' regime that took power in 1908, the Ottoman Empire committed various genocides and ethnic cleansings. The minimum death toll is derived from the sum of the minimum death tolls of the Armenian genocide (800,000), Assyrian genocide (150,000), Greek genocide (289,000), ethnic cleansing of the Thracian Bulgarians in 1913 (50,000), and the Great Famine of Mount Lebanon (200,000). The maximum death toll is derived from the work of Rudolph Rummel.
Omar al-Bashir	1,063,000	2,530,000	1,639,936	Sudan	1989	2019	29 years	1 to 2 million: Second Sudanese Civil War 63,000 to 530,000: Darfur genocide
Kim Dynasty	710,000	3,500,000	1,576,388	North Korea	1948	present	70 years	North Korea continues to be one of the most repressive governments in the world. See also: Human rights in North Korea
Communist Afghanistan	500,000	2,000,000	1,000,000	Afghanistan	1979	1989	10 years
Suharto	240,500	3,418,000+	906,658	Indonesia	1965	1998	33 years	65/66 Politicide: 78,500 to 3 million "communists" East Timor atrocities: 60,000 to 308,000 East Timorese West Papua atrocities: 100,000 papuans Petrus killings: 2,000 to 10,000 suspected criminals
Théoneste Bagosora	500,000	1,100,000	741,620	Rwanda	1994	1994	100 days	approximately 17% of the population of Rwanda was killed in 100 days, in the Rwandan genocide.
Mengistu Haile Mariam	225,000	2,000,000	670,820	Ethiopia	1977	1987	10 years
Saddam Hussein	200,000	2,000,000	632,456	Iraq	1979	2003	24 years	see Human rights in Saddam Hussein's Iraq#Number of victims
Ante Pavelić and Nikola Mandić	300,000	1,088,000	571,314	Croatia	1941	1945	4 years	See also: Independent State of Croatia
Milton Obote	300,000	1 million	547,723	Uganda	1966 1980	1971 1985	10 years
Commonwealth of England	200,000	800,000	400,000	Ireland	1649	1660	11 years	See also: Cromwellian conquest of Ireland
Ho Chi Minh and the Viet Cong	145,225	1,082,000	396,401	Vietnam	1954	2000	46 years	95,000: re-education camps 13,500–200,000: land reform 36,725 to 227,000: war crimes 200,000 to 560,000: boat people The minimum death toll is the same of minimum estimates for war crimes, re-education camps, and land reform. The maximum death toll is the combination of the maximum estimated death toll of land reform, war crimes, re-education camps and boat people, which may or may not be attributable to the regime.
Benito Mussolini	158,000	750,000+	344,238	Italy, Libya, Ethiopia, Yugoslavia, Greece	1922	1945	24 years	80,000 to 125,000 or over a quarter of the Cyrenaican Pacification of Libya Ethiopia in which 62,000 to 485,000 Second Italo-Abyssinian War 11,000 War crimes in Greece 5,000 to 7,000. War crimes in Yugoslavia
Gustavo Rojas Pinilla	300,000	300,000	300,000	Colombia	1953	1957	4 years	See also: La Violencia
Francisco Franco	195,000	265,000	227,321	Spain, Austria, and Russia	1939	1975	36 years	Diseases and starvation: 130,000 (1939–1943) Repression: 30,000–100,000 (1939–1948) Prison camps: 20,000 (1939–1943) Spanish Maquis: 5,548 (1939–1965) World War II: 5,000 (Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria) Blue Division: Casualties in the Russo-German conflict totalled 22,700. In action against the Blue Division, the Red Army suffered 49,300 casualties. See also: Francoist Spain
Idi Amin	100,000	500,000	223,607	Uganda	1971	1979	8 years	Idi Amin's rule of Uganda saw excessive and egregious human rights abuses toward ethnic minorities and political opposition, earning him the nickname "The Butcher of Uganda."
Josip Broz Tito	60,000	802,000	219,363	Yugoslavia	1944	1980	36 years
Bashar al-Assad	87,952	500,000	209,705	Syria	2011	present	9 years	See also: Syrian civil war perhaps up to 278,460 civilians killed An additional 154,000 civilians have been forcibly disappeared or subject to arbitrary detentions; with over 135,000 individuals being tortured, imprisoned or dead in government detention centres as of 2023.
Michel Micombero	100,000	300,000	173,205	Burundi	1966	1976	10 years	See also: Ikiza
Government of Guatemala, Armed Forces of Guatemala, and Mano Blanca	130,200	186,000	155,619	Guatemala	1960	1996	36 years	Between 140,000 and 200,000 dead and missing in Guatemalan Civil War (estimated) 93% killed by government forces
FRELIMO	83,000	250,000	144,049	Communist Mozambique	1975	1999	24 years	See also: Mozambican Civil War
King Salman	85,000	230,000+	139,821	Yemen	2016	present	5 years	See also: Famine in Yemen
Ivan the Terrible	60,000	260,000	124,900	Russian Empire	1533	1584	51 years
Communist rule in Romania, various leaders	60,000	234,947	118,730	Romania	1945	1989	44 years	Total does not take into account the Romanian orphans who perished under Nicolae Ceaușescu's policies. See also: Socialist Republic of Romania
Syngman Rhee	60,000	200,000	109,545	South Korea	1950	1950	1 years	During the Bodo League massacre
Siad Barre	50,000	200,000	100,000	Somalia	1988	1991	3 years	See also: Isaaq genocide
Second Spanish Republic	27,000	302,000	90,300	Spain	1931	1939	8 years	See also: Red Terror (Spain)
Communist rule in Bulgaria, various leaders	31,000	220,000	82,583	Bulgaria	1944	1989	45 years	Collectivization and political repression in Bulgaria See also: People's Republic of Bulgaria
Sheng Shicai	50,000	100,000	70,711	Xinjiang Province, Republic of China	1933	1945	13 years
Vlad the Impaler	43,903	100,000	66,259	Wallachia	1456	1462	6 years
Communist rule in Czechoslovakia, various leaders	24,000	181,000	65,909	Czechoslovakia	1948	1968	20 years	See also: Communist repression in Czechoslovakia
Ruhollah Khomeini and Ali Khemenei	48,482	87,500	65,132	Iran	1979	present	39 years	4,482 to 30,000 in P.O.C. massacre 6,000 to 18,000 child soldiers killed (refer to earlier tables on page) 8,000 to 9,500 Casualties of the Iranian Revolution More than 30,000 Kurds died in the 1979 rebellion and the consequent KDPI insurgency.
Henry VIII	57,000	72,000	64,062	England	1509	1547	38 years
Francisco Macías Nguema	20,000	20,000	20,000	Equatorial Guinea	1968	1979	11 years	At trial, Macías Nguema and his regime was accused of the genocide of 20,000.
Revolutionary Government Junta of El Salvador and proceeding government of El Salvador	55,387	59,886	57,593	El Salvador	1979	1992	12 years	65,161+ civilians killed in Salvadoran Civil War along with 5,292+ disappeared. The Truth Commission for El Salvador concluded that approximately 85% of the abuses committed between 1980 and 1991 were committed by government forces. Controversially, the commission named over 40 senior members of the military, judicial system, and armed opposition in the report for their involvement in the conduction of the mass atrocities. Furthermore, from the 22,000 testimonies documented, at least 60% involved murders, 25% involved disappearances, and 20% involved torture.
Rafael Trujillo	50,000	50,000	50,000	Dominican Republic	1930	1960	30 years
Sheikh Hasina	45,000	45,000	45,000	Bangladesh	2009	present	14 years
François Duvalier	30,000	60,000	42,426	Haiti	1957	1971	14 years	Duvalier's rule based on a purged military, a rural militia known as the Tonton Macoute, and the use of cult of personality, resulted in the murder of 30,000 to 60,000 Haitians, and the exile of many more.
Hissène Habré	40,000	40,000	40,000	Chad	1982	1990	8 years	In May 2016, Hissène Habré was found guilty of human-rights abuses, including rape, sexual slavery, and ordering the killing of 40,000 people. He was sentenced to life in prison. He is the first former head of state to be convicted for human rights abuses in the court of another nation.
Communist rule in Cuba, various leaders	9,240	92,400	29,219	Cuba	1976	present	42 years	Human rights in Cuba are under the scrutiny of Human Rights Watch, which accuses the Cuban government of systematic human rights abuses. This includes offenses such as arbitrary imprisonment, unfair trials, and extrajudicial execution. See also: Human rights in Cuba
French First Republic, various leaders	16,594	41,594	26,272	France	1792	1799	7 years	See also: Reign of Terror
Maximiliano Hernández Martínez	10,000	40,000	20,000	El Salvador	1931	1944	12 years	10,000–40,000 killed in La Matanza
Nicolás Maduro	Almost 18,000	Almost 18,000	Almost 18,000	Venezuela	2016	present	5 years
Ferdinand Marcos	3,257	83,257	16,467	Philippines	1965	1986	21 years	The conservative estimate is recorded from 1975 to 1985, while the maximum estimate is recorded from 1965 to 1976. Also Includes those from the Moro conflict.
Tomás de Torquemada	2,000	124,621	15,787	Spanish Empire	1480	1498	18 years	Minimum death toll only includes lowest estimate of those burned at the stake, whereas the maximum death toll also includes those who died from hunger and torture.
Jiang Zemin, Hu Jintao, and Xi Jinping	3,700	66,390	15,673	China	1993	present	28 years	See also: Persecution of Falun Gong, 2008 Tibetan unrest
Communist rule in Poland, various leaders	10,000	22,000	14,832	Communist Poland	1945	1989	44 years	See also: Communist repression in Poland
Communist rule in Hungary, Various leaders	7,000	27,000	13,748	Hungary	1948	1956	8 years	Minimum death toll does not take into account those out of the 150,000 who perished in concentration camps, and only counts the 5,000 alleged spies and 2,000 party members executed, noting that 5,000 spies came from only 98,000 out of 700,000 alleged spies. See also: Communist repression in Hungary
Enver Hoxha	5,000	25,000	11,180	Albania	1941	1985	44 years
Grégoire Kayibanda	10,000	10,000	10,000	Rwanda	1962	1973	11 years	Reprisals against Tutsis during the Rwandan Revolution
Tiberius	9,500	9,500	9,500	Ancient Rome	14	37	23 years
Caligula	9,000	9,000	9,000	Ancient Rome	37	41	4 years
Johnny Paul Koroma	6,000	6,000	6,000	Sierra Leone	1997	1998	1 year
Nero	5,750	5,750	5,750	Ancient Rome	54	68	14 years
Communist rule in East Germany, various leaders	327	70,000	4,784	East Germany	1949	1989	40 years	See also: Berlin Wall deaths
Fulgencio Batista	1,000	20,000	4,472	Cuba	1952	1959	7 years
Jean-Bédel Bokassa	100	90,000	3,000	Central African Republic	1966	1976	10 years	It was found that Bokassa personally oversaw the massacre of 100 schoolchildren.
Claudius	2,935	2,935	2,935	Ancient Rome	41	54	13 years
Park Chung Hee	2,104	3,514	2,719	South Korea	1961	1979	18 years	See also: South Korea in the Vietnam War, Brothers Home. Low estimate includes estimates for the Brothers Home, the Binh Tai Massacre, the Bình An/Tây Vinh massacre, the Bình Hòa massacre, and the Hà My massacre.
Chun Doo Hwan	1,114	2,814	1,771	South Korea	1981	1988	8 years	See also: Kwangju incident, Brothers Home

Political purges

This section lists events that entail the mass killings of political opposition (such as those of certain ideology, class or political persuasion).

See also: Red Terror (disambiguation), White Terror, and Politicide.

Event	Lowest estimate	Highest estimate	Geometric mean estimate	Location	From	Until	Duration	Notes
Mass killings of landlords under Mao Zedong	200,000	28,000,000	2,366,432	People's Republic of China	1947	1951	5 years	Millions of landlords were allegedly killed during land reforms before the formation of the People's Republic of China because they were seen as class enemies. See also: Struggle session
Cultural Revolution	400,000	10,000,000	2,000,000	People's Republic of China	1966	1976	10 years	The Cultural Revolution, formally the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a sociopolitical movement that took place in the People's Republic of China from 1966 until 1976. Set into motion by Mao Zedong, then Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party, its stated goal was to preserve 'true' Communist ideology in the country by purging remnants of capitalist and traditional elements from Chinese society. See also: Struggle session
Dekulakization	530,000	5,000,000	1,627,882	Ukraine, USSR	1917	1933	16 years	Initial phase part of: Red terror Final phase part of: Collectivization
Indonesian mass killings of 1965–66	500,000	3,000,000	1,224,745	Indonesia	1965	1966	1 year	Massacres of people connected to the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) were carried out in 1965–66 by the Indonesian Army and associated death squads with support from Western powers such as the United States. Death tolls are difficult to estimate, but it is widely accepted by scholars that roughly 1 million people were killed.
Campaign to Suppress Counterrevolutionaries	712,000	2,000,000	1,193,315	People's Republic of China	1950	1951	1 year	The Campaign to Suppress Counterrevolutionaries (Chinese: 镇压反はん革命かくめい; pinyin: zhènyā fǎn gémìng; lit. 'suppressing counterrevolutionaries' or abbreviated as Chinese: 鎮反; pinyin: zhènfǎn) was the first political campaign launched by the People's Republic of China designed to eradicate opposition elements, especially former Kuomintang (KMT) functionaries accused of trying undermine the new Communist government.
Great Purge	681,692	1,704,230	1,077,850	Soviet Union	1936	1938	2 years	The Great Purge or Great Terror was a period of intense political repression in the Soviet Union including execution (especially through open air shootings) and forced labor through the Gulag system.
White Terror (Spain)	150,000	400,000	244,949	Spain during and after the Spanish Civil War	1936	1945	9 years	In Spain, the White Terror (also known as "la Represión Franquista" or the "Francoist Repression") was the series of acts of politically motivated violence, rape, and other crimes committed by the Nationalist movement during the Spanish Civil War (July 17, 1936 – April 1, 1939) and during Francisco Franco's dictatorship (October 1, 1936 – November 20, 1975)
Qey Shibir	30,000	750,000	150,000	People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia	1977	1978	1 year	Violent purge of those deemed Anti-Communist in Ethiopia.
Bodo League massacre	100,000	200,000	141,421	Korea	1950	1950	?	Massacre of communists and suspected communists during the summer of 1950, at the start of Korean War.
German suppression of the Freemasons	80,000	200,000	126,491	German-occupied territory	1933	1945	12 years	The Nazi regime of Germany targeted Freemasons as they saw them as collaborators in a Jewish conspiracy. See also: Suppression of Freemasonry
Red Terror	10,000	1,500,000	122,474	Former Russian Empire during Russian Civil War	1918	1922	4 years	Political repression by the Bolsheviks during the Russian Civil War.
White Terror (Russia)	20,000	300,000	77,460	Former Russian Empire	1917	1923	6 years	Political repression by the White movement during the Russian Civil War.
1991 Iraqi uprisings	25,000	180,000	67,082	Iraq	March the 1st, 1991	April the 5th, 1991	1 month and 4 days	The death toll of the uprising against Saddam Hussein's government during 1991 was high throughout the country. The rebels killed many Ba'athist officials and officers. In response, thousands of unarmed civilians were killed by indiscriminate fire from loyalist tanks, artillery and helicopters, and many historical and religious structures in the south were deliberately targeted under orders from Saddam Hussein. Saddam's security forces entered the cities, often using women and children as human shields, where they detained and summarily executed or "disappeared" thousands of people at random in a policy of collective responsibility. Many suspects were tortured, raped, or burned alive.
Operation Condor	50,000	90,000	67,082	South America	1975	1983	8 years	A campaign of political repression by right-wing dictatorships in South America, sponsored by the United States.
Red Terror (Spain)	38,000	72,344	52,432	Spain during the Spanish Civil War	1936	1939	3 years	The Red Terror in Spain (Spanish: Terror Rojo) is the name given by historians to various acts of violence committed from 1936 until the end of the Spanish Civil War "by sections of nearly all the leftist groups".
Land Reform in Vietnam	13,500	200,000	51,962	North Vietnam	1954	1956	2 years
Reign of Terror	16,594	41,594	26,272	France during the French Revolution	1793	1794	1 year	The Reign of Terror was a period of violence that occurred after the onset of the French Revolution, incited by conflict between two rival political factions, the Girondins and The Jacobins, and marked by mass executions of "enemies of the revolution".
1932 Salvadoran peasant massacre	10,000	40,000	20,000	El Salvador	January 22, 1932	July 11, 1932	6 months and 20 days	Many of the victims were indigenous people.
February 28 incident	10,000	30,000	17,321	Taiwan	1947	1947	1 day	Crackdown by the Kuomintang government that ushered in the White Terror (Taiwan) era.
Dirty War	9,000	30,000	16,432	Argentina	1976	1983	7 years	At least 9,000 people were tortured and killed in Argentina from 1976 to 1983, carried out primarily by the Argentinean military Junta (part of Operation Condor).
Red and White terrors of the Finnish Civil War	11,650	11,650	11,650	Finland	1918	1918	3 months, 2 weeks and 4 days	Both sides of the Finnish Civil War used Terrors where 10,000 were killed in the White Terror and 1,650 were killed in the Red Terror.
1988 executions of Iranian political prisoners	4,482	30,000	11,596	Iran	1988	1988	5 months	Massacre of political prisoners in Iran.
1982 Hama massacre	2,000	40,000	8,944	Hama, Syria	February 2, 1982	February 28, 1982	26 days	The Hama massacre (Arabic: مجزرة حماة) occurred in February 1982, when the Syrian Arab Army and the Defense Companies, under the orders of the country's president Hafez al-Assad, besieged the town of Hama for 27 days in order to quell an uprising by the Muslim Brotherhood against al-Assad's government.
White Terror (Taiwan)	3,000	4,000	3,464	Taiwan	1949	1987	38 years	An era of martial law in Taiwan in which 140,000 were imprisoned, and 3,000 to 4,000 were executed for real or perceived opposition to the Kuomintang.
Extermination of the Patriotic Union party	2,000	5,000	3,162	Colombia	1984	1994
Human rights violations in Pinochet's Chile	1,200	3,200	1,960	Chile	1974	1990	16 years	1,200 to 3,200 alleged communists were executed, 80,000 were forcibly interned and 30,000 were tortured under the reign of Augusto Pinochet.
1989 Tiananmen Square protests crackdown	241	10,000	1,552	Tiananmen Square, People's Republic of China	1989	1989	1 month, 2 weeks and 6 days	Crackdown of anti-government protest in the People's Republic of China.
Red Terror (Hungary)	370	590	467	Hungary	1919	1919	4 months

Prisons, concentration and extermination camps

This section lists deaths that occurred in particular prisons, concentration and/or extermination camps, deaths are from both the conditions within the camps and from the active murder/execution of prisoners.

Event	Lowest estimate	Highest estimate	Geometric mean estimate	Location	From	Until	Duration	Notes
Auschwitz concentration camp	1,100,000	1,500,000	1,284,523	Oświęcim, Poland	1940	1945	5 years
Treblinka extermination camp	700,000	1,000,000	836,660	Treblinka, Poland	1942	1943	1 year
Belzec extermination camp	480,000	600,000	536,656	Bełżec, Poland	1942	1943	1 year
Kolyma	130,000	500,000	254,951	Kolyma, Soviet Union	1932	1954	22 years
Jasenovac concentration camp	77,000	100,000	87,750	Independent State of Croatia	1941	1945	4 years
Stutthof concentration camp	85,000	85,000	85,000	Stutthof, Poland	1939	1945	6 years	See also: Nazi Germany
Stara Gradiška concentration camp	12,790	75,000	30,972	Independent State of Croatia	1941	1945	4 years	Primarily for women and children.
Tuol Sleng	17,000	17,000	17,000	Phnom Penh, Cambodia	1975	1979	4 years
Camp Sumter	13,171	13,171	13,171	Andersonville, Georgia, United States	1864	1865	1 year
Sednaya Prison	5,000	30,000	12,247	Saidnaya, Rif Dimashq Governorate, Syria	2011	unknown	over 10 years	Military prison used to torture and execute Syrian opposition to the Assad regime.
Crveni Krst concentration camp	12,000	12,000	12,000	Niš, Serbia	1941	1944	3 years
Topovske Šupe concentration camp	4,300	4,300	4,300	Belgrade, Serbia	1941	1941	4 months
Banjica concentration camp	3,849	3,849	3,849	Belgrade, Serbia	1941	1944	4 years
Fort Dimanche	3,000	3,000	3,000	Port-au-Prince, Haiti	1957	1986	30 years	It has been estimated that about 3,000 inmates died.
Tammisaari prison camp	2,963	2,963	2,963	Ekenäs, Finland	1918	1918	4 months
Elmira Prison	2,950	2,950	2,950	Elmira, New York, U.S.	1864	1865	1 year
Shark Island concentration camp	1,032	4,000	2,032	Luderitz, German South-West Africa	1905	1907	2 years	The minimum death toll is out of a camp population of 1,795 people, and the maximum total includes those who died in the Luderitz area.
Goli Otok prison	400	4,000	1,265	Goli Otok, Yugoslavia	1949	1956	8 years

Riots and political unrest

Main article: List of riots

Riots and incidents where at least 100 people died are listed here.

Event	Victims	Country	Locale(s)	Date
Partition of India	200,000–2,000,000	British India	Punjab and Bengal	1947
La Violencia	200,000–300,000	Colombia	Country-wide	1948–1960
1959 Tibetan uprising	85,000–87,000	Tibet, China	Lhasa	1959
April Uprising	30,000	Ottoman Empire	Bulgaria	1876
Nika riots	30,000	Byzantium	Constantinople	532
Political violence in Apartheid South Africa	18,997–21,000	South Africa	Country-wide	1948–1994
Semaine sanglante	6,667–20,000	France	Paris	1871
February 28 incident	10,000–30,000	China	Taiwan	1947
Jeju uprising	14,000–30,000	Southern Korea, present-day South Korea	Jeju island	1948
August Uprising	13,000–15,500	Soviet Union	Georgia	1924
La Matanza	10,000–40,000	El Salvador		1932
Romanian Peasants' Revolt	10,000–20,000	Romania		1907
Kronstadt rebellion	10,000	Russia	Kronstadt	1921
1984 anti-Sikh riots	2,800–8,000	India	New Delhi	1984
March 1st Movement	7,500	Japanese Korea, present-day South Korea	Seoul	1919
Al-Aqsa Intifada	4,179–4,354	Israel/Palestinian territories		2000–2005
Pitchfork uprising	3,800	Russia		1920
Iranian Revolution	2,781	Iran		1979
8888 Uprising	3,000–10,000	Burma/Myanmar		1987–1993
First Intifada	2,204	Israel/Palestinian territories		1987
Banana Massacre	47–2,000	Colombia	Ciénaga	1928
Santa María School massacre	2,300	Chile	Iquique	1907
Assam Movement	2,191+	India	Assam	1979–1985
1994 South African transitional violence	1,652	South Africa		1994
Romanian Revolution	1,104	Romania	Bucharest and major cities	1989
2009 Boko Haram uprising	1,000+	Nigeria	States of Bauchi, Borno, Yobe, and Kano	2009
May 1998 riots of Indonesia	1,000–1,200	Indonesia	Jakarta, Medan, Surakarta	1998
2008 Kenyan election protests	1,000	Kenya		2008
2005 Togolese democracy protests	500–1,000	Togo		2005
1989 Bhagalpur violence	1,000	India	Bhagalpur district, Bihar	1989
1905 Bloody Sunday	132–4,000	Russia	Saint Petersburg	1905
2010 South Kyrgyzstan ethnic clashes	893	Kyrgyzstan		2010
1987 Mecca incident	400	Saudi Arabia	Mecca	1987
Jallianwala Bagh (Amritsar) massacre	379–1,526	British India	Amritsar	1919
Telangana movement (Hyderabad)	360+	India	Hyderabad	1969
Tunisian Revolution	338	Tunisia		2010–2011
1989 Tiananmen Square protests	300–10,454	China	Beijing	1989
Kengir uprising	700	Soviet Union	Kazakhstan	1954
2018–2022 Nicaraguan protests	317	Nicaragua	Country-wide	2018
Gordon Riots	285	Great Britain		1780
1929 Palestine riots	249	British Mandate for Palestine		1929
Sudanese Revolution	229+	Sudan	Nationwide	2018–2019
Military Police of Espírito Santo strike	215	Brazil	Espírito Santo	2017
Ürümqi race riots	197+	China	Xinjiang	2009
13 May incident	196	Malaysia	Kuala Lumpur	1969
Andijan massacre	187–1,500	Uzbekistan	Andijan	2005
2017 Venezuelan protests	165	Venezuela	Nationwide	2017
2009 Guinean protests	157	Guinea	Conakry	2009
Gwangju Uprising	144–2,000	South Korea	Gwangju	1980
Durban riots	142	South Africa	Durban	1949
2017 Brazil prison riots	140+	Brazil		2017
Muhammad cartoon riots	139	Nigeria, Libya, Pakistan, and Afghanistan		2006
Khartoum massacre	128	Sudan	Khartoum	2019
Tana River District clashes	118	Kenya	Tana River District	2012–2013
Euromaidan	121–797	Ukraine	Kyiv	2014
New York City draft riots	119–120	United States	New York City	1863
Carandiru massacre	111	Brazil	São Paulo	1992
Napoleon's "whiff of grapeshot"	100	France	Paris	1795
2001 Argentine anti-government riots	39	Argentina	Country-wide, Buenos Aires	2001
Georgian de-Stalinization riots	22–100	Georgia	Country-wide	1956

Anthropogenically exacerbated disasters

Disease and famine

Main articles: Famine and List of famines

This section includes famines and disease outbreaks that were caused or exacerbated by human action.

Note: Some of these famines and diseases were partially caused by nature.

Event	Lowest estimate	Highest estimate	Geom. mean estimate	Location	From	Until	Duration	Notes
Black Death	75,000,000	200,000,000	122,474,487	Asia, Europe, North Africa	1347	1351	4 years	During the siege of Caffa in today's Crimea, one of the first documented cases of biological warfare spread the disease to the city which then led to the spread of the disease in Europe, and from Europe to North Africa and the Middle-East.
All famines in India under British influence	12,000,000	51,000,000	24,738,634	India	1757	1947	190 years	Between 12 and 51 million Indians (or even more) died of starvation while India was under British rule (East India Company and British Raj). Millions of tonnes of wheat were exported to Britain as famine raged.
Indian famine of 1896–1897 and the Indian famine of 1899–1900	8,400,000	19,000,000	12,633,289	British India	1896	1900	4 years	ENSO famines. See also: Late Victorian Holocausts.
Great Chinese Famine	2,600,000	55,000,000	11,958,261	China	1958	1962	4 years	During the Great Leap Forward under Mao Zedong tens of millions of Chinese starved to death. State violence during this period further exacerbated the death toll, and some 2.5 million people were beaten or tortured to death in connection with Great Leap policies.
Famine and disease caused by Japanese imperialism	8,136,000	14,936,000	11,023,579	Japanese Empire	1937	1945	8 years	Combined death tolls from famine and disease from China, Vietnam, Indonesia, and the Philippines. See also: World War II casualties
Northern Chinese Famine of 1876–1879	9,000,000	13,000,000	10,816,654	China	1876	1879	3 years	ENSO famine. See also: Late Victorian Holocausts
Great Bengal famine of 1770	10,000,000	10,000,000	10,000,000	British Bengal	1769	1773	4 years	The famine killed a third of the Bengali population at the time. It is attributed to the policies of the ruling British East India Company.
Great Famine of 1876–1878	6,100,000	10,320,000	7,934,230	British India	1876	1878	2 years	ENSO famine. See also: Late Victorian Holocausts.
Russian famine of 1921–22	5,000,000	10,000,000	7,071,068	Soviet Russia	1921	1922	1 year	May have been exacerbated by War Communism policies, but it is debatable to which extent. See also: Droughts and famines in Russia and the Soviet Union, and Russian Civil War, with its policy of War communism, especially prodrazvyorstka.
Famine and disease caused by the Second Sino-Japanese War	5,000,000	10,000,000	7,071,068	China	1937	1945	8 years	See also: World War II casualties.
Soviet famine of 1932–33	4,400,000	9,100,000	6,327,717	Soviet Union	1932	1933	1 year	The majority of famine victims were Ukrainian. Many nations, including Ukraine, regard the famine's effect in the Ukraine as a genocide against Ukraine, known as the Holodomor. 1.8 – 4.8 million: Ukraine 600,000 – 2.3 million: Kazakhstan 2 million: Elsewhere
Famine and disease caused by World War I	5,411,000	6,100,000	5,745,181	Worldwide	1914	1918	4 years	See also: World War I casualties.
Famine and disease caused by the Second Congo War	3,800,000	5,400,000	4,529,901	Africa	1998	2004	6 years	Majority of those who died in war perished from famine and disease.
Iranian famine of 1917–1919	2,000,000	10,000,000	4,472,136	Iran	1917	1919	3 years	The Persian famine of 1917–1919 was a period of widespread mass starvation and disease in Persia (Iran). The famine took place in the occupied territory of Iran that had declared neutrality. According to the estimates acknowledged, 2–10 million people died of hunger and disease. A variety of factors are commented to have caused and contributed to the famine such as war profiteering, and poor harvests but mainly requisitioning and confiscation of foodstuffs by the occupying Russian and British armies.
Famine and disease caused by Decommunization	4,000,000+	4,000,000+	4,000,000+	Former States of the Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc	1991	2000	9 years	Deaths caused by decrease in living conditions in Russia and other former Communist States after the fall of the Soviet Union.
Bengal famine of 1943	800,000	3,800,000	3,464,102	British India	1943	1944	1 year	The Japanese conquest of Burma cut off India's main supply of rice imports, however, war-related administrative policies in British India ultimately helped to cause the massive death toll.
Famine and diseased caused by the Biafran Blockade during Nigeria's Civil War	2,000,000	3,000,000	2,449,490	Nigeria	1967	1970	3 years	More than two million Igbo died from the famine imposed deliberately through blockades during the war. Lack of medicine also contributed. Thousands starved to death daily as the war progressed.
Famine and disease during the Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies	2,400,000	2,400,000	2,400,000	Indonesia	1944	1945	1 year	An estimated 2.4 million Indonesians starved to death during the Japanese occupation of Indonesia. The problem was partly caused by failures of the main 1944–45 rice crop, but the main cause was the compulsory rice purchasing system that the Japanese authorities put in place to secure rice for distribution to the armed forces and urban population.
Soviet famine of 1946–1947	1,000,000	1,500,000	1,224,745	Soviet Union	1946	1947	1 year	Debated as to whether it was caused by war or government policy.
Great Irish Famine	750,000	1,500,000	1,060,660	Ireland	1846	1849	3 years	Although blight ravaged potato crops throughout Europe during the 1840s, the impact and human cost in Ireland, where a third of the population was significantly dependent on the Irish Lumper potato for food, was exacerbated by a host of political, social and economic factors, which continue to remain the subject of historical debate.
Vietnamese famine of 1945	400,000	2,000,000	894,427	Vietnam	1944	1945	1 year	The Japanese occupation during World War II caused the famine in North Vietnam.
Cambodian Holocaust Famine	800,000	950,000	871,780	Cambodia	1975	1979	4 years	An estimated 2 million Cambodians died as the result of murder, forced labor, and famine, perpetrated by the Khmer Rouge, nearly half of which was caused by forced starvation. Came to an end due to invasion by Vietnam in 1979.
1983–1985 famine in Ethiopia	400,000	1,000,000	632,456	Ethiopia	1983	1985	2 years	The famines that struck Ethiopia between 1961 and 1985, especially the one of 1983–1985, were in large part created by government policies.
Famine and disease during the Japanese occupation of the Philippines	336,000	336,000	336,000	Philippines	1942	1945	3 years	See also: World War I casualties.
North Korean famine	240,000	420,000	317,490	North Korea	1994	1998	4 years	The famine stemmed from a variety of factors. Economic mismanagement and the loss of Soviet support caused food production and imports to decline rapidly. A series of floods and droughts exacerbated the crisis, but were not its direct cause. The North Korean government and its centrally-planned system proved too inflexible to effectively curtail the disaster. Recent research suggests the likely number of excess deaths between 1993 and 2000 was about 330,000.
Cuban War of Independence Famine	300,000	300,000	300,000	Cuba	1895	1898	3 years	Most of dead in this war perished from famine and disease.
Famine in the Tigray War (Plus lack of medical care)	250,000	300,000	273,861	Tigray, Ethiopia	2020	present	3 years	Belgium's Ghent University's 2022 estimates put the number of dead at due to the war at 300,000 to 500,000 including 50,000 to 100,000 deaths from fighting, 150,000 to 200,000 deaths due to famine and 100,000 deaths from lack of medical attention.
Bangladesh famine of 1974	27,000[1]	1,500,000[2]	201,246	Bangladesh	April 1974	December 1974	8 months	Severe rainfall and consequent floods of the Brahmaputra river caused bad harvests, coupled with completely unprepared government policies, brought to the death of millions of Bangladeshis (mostly in the Rangpur region) during the famine and consequent high mortality rates after the end of the crisis (estimated 450 thousand people died because of diseases and weakened immunity systems).
Great Famine of Mount Lebanon	200,000	200,000	200,000	Mount Lebanon, Ottoman Empire	1915	1918	3 years	Around 200,000 people starved to death at a time when the population of Mount Lebanon was estimated at 400,000. The Mount Lebanon famine caused the highest fatality rate by population of World War I. Bodies were piled in the streets, and people were reported to be eating street animals, while some resorted to cannibalism.
1998 Sudan famine	70,000	70,000	70,000	Sudan	1998	1998	?	The famine was caused almost entirely by human rights abuse and the war in Southern Sudan.
Famine in Yemen (2016–present)	50,000 children	50,000 children	50,000 children	Yemen	2016	present	2 years	The famine was triggered by Saudi Arabia's intervention into the Yemeni Civil War, which is backed by Western powers including the United States. Around 13 million people, or roughly half of the country's population, is facing starvation in what the UN calls "the worst famine in the world in 100 years".

Floods and landslides

Main articles: List of deadliest floods, List of natural disasters by death toll § Floods and landslides, and List of landslides

These are floods and landslides that have been partially caused by humans, for example by failure of dams, levees, seawalls or retaining walls.

Event	Lowest estimate	Highest estimate	Geom. mean estimate	Location	From	Until	Duration	Notes
1931 China floods	2,500,000	3,700,000	3,041,381	China	1931	1931	?
1887 Yellow River (Huang He) flood	900,500	930,000	915,131	China	1887	1887	?
1938 Yellow River (Huang He) flood	400,000	800,000	591,608	China	1938	1938	?
Flight of the Boat People	200,000	560,000	334,664	Gulf of Thailand and Pacific Ocean	1978	1979	1 year
1935 Yangtze flood	145,000	145,000	145,000	China	1935	1935	?
St. Felix's flood, storm surge	more than 100,000	more than 100,000	more than 100,000	Netherlands	1530	1530	?
Hanoi and Red River Delta flood	100,000	100,000	100,000	North Vietnam	1971	1971	?
1911 Yangtze river flood	100,000	100,000	100,000	China	1911	1911	?
The failure of 62 dams in Zhumadian Prefecture, Henan, the largest of which was Banqiao Dam, caused by Typhoon Nina.	26,000	230,000	77,330	China	August 1975	August 1975	?
St. Lucia's flood, storm surge	50,000	80,000	63,246	Netherlands, England	1287	1287	?
Vargas Tragedy, landslide	10,000	50,000	22,361	Venezuela	1999	1999	?
North Sea flood, storm surge	2,400	2,400	2,400	Netherlands, Scotland, England, Belgium	January 31, 1953	January 31, 1953	1 day
Johnstown Flood	2,209	2,209	2,209	Pennsylvania	May 31, 1889	May 31, 1889	1 day

Other

Human sacrifice and suicide

This section lists deaths from the practice of human sacrifice or suicide.

Event	Lowest estimate	Highest estimate	Geom. mean estimate	Location	From	Until	Duration	Notes
Human sacrifice in Aztec culture	20,000	5,000,000	316,228	Mexico	14th century	1521	200 years	Skull racks: 60,000 to 136,000 See also: Aztecs
Suicide bombings during the Iraq War	12,284	18,000+	14,870	Iraq	2003	2019	16 years	See also: Iraqi insurgency (2003–11) and Iraqi Civil War (2014–2017)
Human sacrifice in Shang dynasty China	13,000	13,000	13,000	China	1300 BCE	1050 BCE	250 years	Last 250 years of rule
Sati ritual suicides	7,941	7,941	7,941	India	1815	1828	13 years
Kamikaze suicide pilots	3,912	3,912	3,912	Pacific theatre	1944	1945	1 year	See also: Empire of Japan
Mass suicide at Masada	967	967	967	Masada	Spring 73 CE	Spring 73 CE	?
Peoples Temple Agricultural Project ("Jonestown")	909	909	909	Guyana	November 18, 1978	November 18, 1978	1 day	Jim Jones
Palestinian suicide attacks	804	804	804	Israel and Palestine	July 6, 1989	April 18, 2016	27 years	May only include victims See also: Palestinian political violence

See also

Other lists organized by death toll

See Lists of death tolls

Other lists with similar topics

• List of unusual deaths
• List of accidents and incidents involving commercial aircraft
• Lists of battles
• Lists of disasters
• Lists of earthquakes
• List of epidemics
• List of famines
• List of fires
• List of invasions
• List of tropical cyclone records
• List of riots
• List of terrorist incidents
• List of wars
• Lists of rail accidents

Topics dealing with similar themes

• Anti-communist mass killings
• Casualties of the Iraq War
• Decommunization
• Democide
• Famine
• Genocide
• Genocides in history (before World War I)
• Infectious disease
• Mass killings under communist regimes
• Mass murder
• List of battles by casualties
• United States military casualties of war