This page shows a list of wars and other events, such as popular uprisings and the actions of tyrannical leaders, that have taken place throughout history and the resultant death tolls. The list is ordered by death toll and shows quite clearly how good we have become at killing people. It is often difficult to give exact start and end dates for many of these events as either they have been lost in time or it was a gradual process.

While this is perhaps a little morbid it is also, I believe, fascinating. I also hope that by showing the world how many people have died in conflict we can perhaps work towards finding more peaceful solutions to our problems.

If you know of a war or event that isn't mentioned here I would like to hear about it. It would be useful if you could include numbers but any information is great.

It is exceedingly difficult to give an accurate figure for the number of people that die in most conflicts due to the wide range of deaths that may be attributed to the war. For instance, should civilian casualties be included? Most people would agree that they should. What about people that died of starvation or disease that would likely not have died if the war hadn't been taking place? What about the old or infirm that perhaps died earlier than they would have done due to stress or a lack of resources?

This matter is further complicated by inaccurate reporting of deaths and the different views that different historians take. While we would like to feel that historians are not biased it is impossible not to be. A death that one historian attributes to a given event might not be attributed by another. In the case of civil wars records are often destroyed or lost which further muddies the waters and tyrannical regimes often go out of their way to hide the numbers killed. The figures shown below are approximate and are a best guess based on the figures available to me. I have tended to aim for a value in the middle of all reported figures.