This list of wars by death toll includes all deaths that are either directly or indirectly caused by the war. These numbers usually include the deaths of military personnel which are the direct results of battle or other military wartime actions, as well as the wartime/war-related deaths of soldiers which are the results of war-induced epidemics, famines, atrocities, genocide, etc.
Types of war | |
---|---|
Civil war | |
Colonial war | |
Proxy war | |
Religious war | |
War of conquest | |
War of liberation | |
World war |
Wars in excess of 2.5 million deaths[edit] | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
No. | War | Date | Combatants | Location | Death toll | |
Low est. | High est. | |||||
1 | 1939 – 1945 | Worldwide | 55,000,000[1] | 85,000,000[2] | ||
2 | 1618 – 1683 | China | 25,000,000[3] | 25,000,000[4] | ||
3 | 1851 – 1864 | China | 20,000,000[5] | 70,000,000[6] | ||
4 | 1206 – 1227 | Eurasia | 18,500,000[7] | 37,750,000[8] | ||
5 | 1937 – 1945 | China | 15,000,000[9] | 20,000,000[10] | ||
6 | 1914 – 1918 | Worldwide | 15,000,000 | 22,000,000 | ||
7 | 755 – 763 | China | 13,000,000 | 36,000,000 | ||
8 | 1370 – 1405 | Timurid Empire
|
Eurasia | 12,000,000 | 17,000,000 | |
9 | 21 – 37 | China | 10,000,000 | 10,000,000 | ||
10 | 1862 – 1877 |
|
China | 8,000,000 | 20,000,000 | |
11 | 1927 – 1949 |
|
China | 8,000,000 | 11,692,000 | |
12 | 1350 – 1368 |
|
China | 7,500,000 | 7,500,000 | |
13 | 1917 – 1923 |
|
Eurasia | 7,000,000 | 12,500,000 | |
14 | 1658 – 1707 | South Asia | 5,000,000 | 5,000,000 | ||
15 | 1881 – 1899 | Northeast Africa | 5,000,000 | 5,000,000 | ||
16 | 1618 – 1648 |
|
Central Europe | 4,000,000 | 8,500,000 | |
17 | 1803 – 1815 |
|
Worldwide | 3,500,000 | 7,000,000 | |
18 | 1950 – 1953 |
|
Korea | 3,000,000 | 3,500,000 | |
19 | 1648 – 1666 | Poland | 3,000,000 | 3,000,000 | ||
20 | 1998 – 2003 | Central Africa | 2,500,000[11] | 5,400,000[12] |