A death toll is the number of fatalities as a result of any cause of death, such as violence (war, mass murder, genocide, terrorist attack), an accident, a natural disaster, extreme weather, infectious disease, etc.

Below is a list of various natural disasters by death toll. Most numbers are estimates and are often in dispute. The incidents are ranked from the highest to the lowest estimate given. This list is, by necessity, somewhat biased toward the modern period, due to better reporting of events.

Some events overlap categories.

Ten deadliest natural disasters

Note: This list excludes diseases and famines, which would otherwise occupy the entire list.

Rank	Event	Location	Date	Death Toll (Estimate)
1.	1931 China floods	China	01931-01-01July-November, 1931	1,000,000–4,000,000*
2.	1887 Yellow River flood	China	01887-01-01September-October, 1887	900,000–2,000,000
3.	1556 Shaanxi earthquake	Shaanxi Province, China	01556-01-01January 23, 1556	830,000
4.	1970 Bhola cyclone	Bangladesh	01970-01-01November 13, 1970	500,000
5.	2004 Indian Ocean earthquake/tsunami	Indian Ocean	02004-12-26December 26, 2004	443,929
6.	526 Antioch earthquake	Antioch, Byzantine Empire	00526-05-20May 20, 526	250,000
7.	1976 Tangshan earthquake	Tangshan, Hebei, China	01976-07-28July 28, 1976	242,000
8.	1920 Haiyuan earthquake	Haiyuan, Ningxia-Gansu, China	01920-12-16December 26, 1920	240,000
9.	1839 India Cyclone	India	01839-01-01November 25, 1839	300,000
10.	1975 Banqiao Dam flood	Zhumadian, Henan Province, China	01975-08-07August 7, 1975	90,000–230,000

* Estimate by Nova's sources are close to 4 million and yet Encarta's sources report as few as 1 million. Expert estimates report wide variance.

Deadliest natural disasters by type of event

Type	Event	Location	Date	Death Toll (Estimate)
Avalanche	Wellington avalanche	United States	01910-03-01March 1, 1910
Blizzard	Iran Blizzard	Iran	01972-02-01February 1972
Drought	Great Famine of 1876–78	India	01921-01-011876–1878
Earthquake	Shaanxi Earthquake	China	01556-01-01January 23, 1556
Flood	1931 China floods	China	01931-01-011931
Hailstorm	Roopkund, Uttaranchal	India	00800-01-019th century
Heat wave	2003 European heat wave	Europe	02003-01-01June-August 2003
Landslide	1999 Vargas mudslides	Venezuela	December 1999
Limnic Eruption	Lake Nyos	Cameroon	01986-01-01August 21, 1986
Pandemic	Black Death	Europe	01918-01-011348–1350
Tornado	Saturia-Manikganj Sadar Tornado	Bangladesh	01989-04-26April 26, 1989
Tropical cyclone	1970 Bhola cyclone	Bangladesh	01970-11-13November 13, 1970
Tsunami	2004 Indian Ocean tsunami	Indian Ocean	02004-12-26December 26, 2004
Volcano	Mount Tambora	Indonesia	01815-01-011815

Earthquakes

Death Toll	Event	Location	Date
830,000	1556 Shaanxi earthquake	China	1556
779,000	1976 Tangshan earthquake	China	1976
250,000	526 Antioch earthquake	Antioch, Byzantine Empire	526
240,000	1920 Haiyuan earthquake	China	1920
230,000	1138 Aleppo earthquake	Syria	1138
229,866	2004 Indian Ocean earthquake	Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Thailand	2004
200,000	Damghan earthquake	Iran	856
150,000	Ardabil earthquake	Iran	893
137,000	1730 Hokkaido- earthquake	Japan	1730
110,000	1948 Ashgabat earthquake	Turkmenistan	1948
105,000	Great Kanto earthquake	Japan	1923
100,000	Messina earthquake	Italy	1908
100,000	1755 Lisbon earthquake	Portugal	1755
100,000	Chihli earthquake	China	1290
86,000	2005 Kashmir earthquake	Pakistan	2005
85,000	Great Ansei Nankai earthquakes	Japan	1854
80,000	Shamakhi	Azerbaijan	1667
77,000	Tabriz Earthquake	Iran	1727
70,000	Changma, Gansu earthquake	China	1932
69,197	2008 Sichuan earthquake	China	2008
66,000	Ancash earthquake	Peru	1970
60,000	Sicily earthquake	Italy	1693
60,000	1935 Balochistan earthquake	British India	1935
50,000	Calabrian earthquakes	Italy	1783
40,000	Gulang, Gansu earthquake	China	1927
40,000	Meio- Nankai, Japan (????) earthquake	Japan	1498
40,000	Quito earthquake	Ecuador	1797
37,000	Genroku earthquake (?????)	Japan	1703
35,000	1990 Manjil Rudbar earthquake	Iran	1990
32,962	1939 Erzincan earthquake	Turkey	1939
30,000	Great Ho-ei Earthquake (?????)	Japan	1707
30,000	2003 Bam earthquake	Iran	2003
25,000	Spitak Earthquake	Armenia	1988
25,000	1978 Tabas earthquake	Iran	1978
23,700	Kamakura earthquake	Japan	1293
23,000	Guatemala earthquake	Guatemala	1976
20,000	Gujarat earthquake	India	2001
20,000	1812 Caracas earthquake	Venezuela	1812
20,000	Chillán earthquake	Chile	1939
18,000	Khait earthquake	Tajikistan	1949
17,118	Izmit earthquake	Turkey	1999
15,000	1960 Agadir earthquake	Morocco	1960
12,225	1962 Bou'in-Zahra earthquake	Iran	1962
10,700	1934 Bihar earthquake	India	1934
10,000	Apennine earthquakes	Italy	1703
9,748	1993 Latur earthquake	India	1993
9,500	1985 Mexico City earthquake	Mexico	1985
9,000	1933 Diexi earthquake	China	1933
8,064	1966 Xingtai earthquake	China	1966
7,000	1968 Dasht-e Bayaz and Ferdows earthquake	Iran	1968
6,433	Great Hanshin earthquake	Japan	1995
6,000	1960 Valdivia earthquake	Chile	1960
5,300	1974 Hunza earthquake	Pakistan	1974
4,000	1945 Balochistan earthquake	British India	1945
3,894	1948 Fukui earthquake	Japan	1948
3,000	1933 Sanriku earthquake	Japan	1933
3,000	1906 San Francisco earthquake	United States	1906

Ten deadliest volcanic eruptions

Death Toll	Event	Location	Date
92,000	Mount Tambora (see also Year Without a Summer)	Indonesia	01815-01-011815
36,000	Krakatoa	Indonesia	01883-08-26August 26–27, 1883
29,000	Mount Pelée	Martinique	01902-05-07May 7 or May 8, 1902
23,000	Nevado del Ruiz	Colombia	01985-11-13November 13, 1985
25,000	Mount Vesuvius	Pompeii and Herculaneum,Italy	01631-01-01August 24th 79 AD
15,000	Mount Unzen	Japan	01792-01-011792
10,000	Mount Kelut	Indonesia	01586-01-011586
9,350	Laki. Killed about 25% of the population (33% were killed about 70 years before by smallpox)	Iceland	01783-06-08 June 8, 1783
6,000	Santa Maria	Guatemala	01902-01-011902
5,115	Mount Kelut	Indonesia	01919-05-19 May 19, 1919

Notes

A supervolcanic eruption at Lake Toba around 74,000 years ago could have wiped out as much as 99% of the global human population, reducing the population from a possible 60 million to less than 10 thousand; see Toba catastrophe theory. However, this theory is not widely accepted because the evidence is disputed, and there have been, for instance, no remains found. The eruption is not listed here as it was pre-historic and outside the scope of this article. Also, the Thera eruption in the Aegean Sea between 1550 and 1650 B.C. may have caused a large number of deaths throughout the region, from Crete to Egypt. See also La Garita Caldera, Yellowstone Caldera, and Supervolcanoes.

References

• Volcanoworld.org
• Global Volcanism Program
• USGS

Ten deadliest tsunamis

Death Toll	Event	Location	Date
> 229,866 (sources vary)	2004 Indian Ocean tsunami	Indian Ocean	2004
100,000	1755 Lisbon earthquake/tsunami/fire	Portugal, Spain, Morocco, Ireland, and the United Kingdom (Cornwall)	1755
100,000	1908 Messina earthquake/tsunami	Messina, Italy	1908
36,000	caused by 1883 Krakatoa eruption	Indonesia	1883
30,000		Tōkaidō/Nankaido, Japan	1707
27,000		Japan	1826
25,674	1868 Arica earthquake/tsunami	Arica, Chile	1868
22,070	1896 Meiji-Sanriku earthquake	Sanriku, Japan	1896
15,030	caused by 1792 Mount Unzen eruption in southwest Kyu-shu-	Kyu-shu-, Japan	1792

Limnic eruptions

Death Toll	Event	Location	Date
1,746	Lake Nyos	Cameroon	1986
37	Lake Monoun	Cameroon	1984

Extreme weather

Ten deadliest heat waves

Death Toll	Event	Location	Date
37,451	2003 European heat wave	Western Europe	02003-06-012003
3,418	2006 European heat wave	United Kingdom, Germany, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Romania	02006-01-012006
2,541	1998 India heat wave	India	01998-01-011998
1,900	2003 India heat wave 2002 heatwave in India	India	02003-01-012003
1,250–10,000	1980 United States heat wave	United States	01980-01-011980
1,000–1,500	1987 Mediterranean heat wave	Albania, Greece, Bosnia, Serbia, Turkey, Italy	01987-01-011987
over 1,000	1994 East Asia heat wave	China, Japan, South Korea	01994-01-011994
739	Chicago Heat Wave of 1995	United States (Chicago, Illinois)	01995-01-011995
500	Hungary Heat Wave of 2007	Hungary	02007-01-012007
437	Southern regions, Australia 1895–1896	Australia	01895-01-011895–1896

Ten deadliest storms (non-cyclone)

Death Toll	Event	Location	Date
15,100	Torrential rains and mudslides	Venezuela	1999
500	Lofoten, Heavy storm	Norway	1849
? 250	Great Lakes Storm of 1913	United States and Canada (Great Lakes region)	1913
242	1996 Amarnath Yatra tragedy	India	1996
210	Trøndelag, storm ("Follastormen")	Norway	1625
189	Eyemouth, Scotland, storm ("Black Friday")	United Kingdom	1881
140	Trøndelag, storm ("Titran disaster")	Norway	1899
96	Lofoten, storm	Norway	1868
30	Haugesund, storm ("Røvær disaster")	Norway	1899
26	Vesterålen, storm	Norway	1802

Ten deadliest tornadoes

Death Toll	Event	Location	Date
1,300	The Saturia-Manikganj Sadar Tornado	Bangladesh (Manikganj)	1989
923	1969 East Pakistan Tornado	Bangladesh	1969
695	The Tri-State Tornado	United States (Missouri–Illinois–Indiana)	March 18, 1925
681	1973 Dhaka Tornado	Bangladesh	1973
600	The Malta Tornado	Malta	1551
500	The Sicily Tornado	Italy	1851
500	The Narail-Magura Tornadoes	Bangladesh (Jessore)	1964
500	The Comoro Tornado	Comoro	1951
440	The Tangail Tornado	Bangladesh	1996
400	Ivanovo, Yaroslavl Tornado	Russia	1984

Ten deadliest cyclones

Death Toll	Event	Location	Date
500,000	1970 Bhola cyclone	Bangladesh (East Pakistan)	1970
300,000	1839 Indian cyclone	India	1839
300,000	1881 Haiphong Typhoon	Vietnam	1881
300,000	1737 Calcutta cyclone	India	1737
210,000	Super Typhoon Nina—contributed to Banqiao Dam failure	China	1975
200,000	Great Backerganj Cyclone of 1876	present day Bangladesh	1876
~146,000	Cyclone Nargis	Myanmar	2008
138,866	1991 Bangladesh cyclone	Bangladesh	1991
100,000	1882 Bombay cyclone	Bombay, India	June 6, 1882
60,000	1922 Swatow Typhoon	China	1922
60,000	1864 Calcutta Cyclone	India	1864

References

• CRED EM-DAT
• Forces of Nature: Worst Disasters
• Epic Disasters: Deadliest Hurricanes

Ten deadliest floods and landslides

Death Toll	Event	Location	Date
2,500,000–3,700,000	1931 China floods	China	1931
900,000–2,000,000	1887 Yellow River flood	China	1887
500,000–700,000	1938 Yellow River flood	China	1938
231,000	Banqiao Dam failure, result of Typhoon Nina. Approximately 86,000 people died from flooding and another 145,000 died during subsequent disease.	China	1975
145,000	1935 Yangtze river flood	China	1935
more than 100,000	St. Felix's Flood, storm surge	Netherlands	1530
100,000	Hanoi and Red River Delta flood	North Vietnam	1971
100,000	1911 Yangtze river flood	China	1911
50,000–80,000	St. Lucia's flood, storm surge	Netherlands	1287
60,000	North Sea flood, storm surge	Netherlands	1212

Ten deadliest wildfires and bushfires

Death Toll	Event	Location	Date
1,200–2,500	Peshtigo Fire, Wisconsin	United States	1871
1,200	Kursha-2, Ryazan Oblast, RSFSR	Soviet Union	1936
453	Cloquet Fire, Minnesota	United States	1918
418	Great Hinckley Fire, Minnesota	United States	1894
282	Thumb Fire, Michigan	United States	1881
240	Sumatra, Kalimantan	Indonesia	1997
233	Matheson Fire, Ontario	Canada	1916
230	Landes region	France	1949
213	Greater Hinggan, Heilongjiang	China	1987
173	Black Saturday bushfires	Australia	2009
160	Miramichi Fire, New Brunswick	Canada	1825

References

References

• Department of Sustainability and Environment
• Emergency Management Australia

Ten deadliest blizzards

Death Toll	Event	Location	Date
4,000	Iran Blizzard	Iran	1972
1,337	2008 Afghanistan blizzard	Afghanistan	2008
400	Great Blizzard of 1888	United States	1888
318	1993 North American Storm Complex	United States	1993
235	Schoolhouse Blizzard	United States	1888
199	Hakko-da Mountains incident	Japan	1902
144	Armistice Day Blizzard	United States	1940
133	2008 Chinese winter storms	China	2008
112	1995 Kazakh Blizzard	Kazakhstan	1995
54	Blizzard of 1978	United States	1978

Contractible diseases

Death Toll	Event	Location	Date
approx. 300,000,000	Smallpox	Worldwide	01901-01-0120th century alone
approx. 100,000,000	Bubonic Plague: Black Death	Asia, Europe, Africa	01300-01-011300s–1720s
? 200,000,000	Measles	Worldwide	01851-01-01last 150 years
80,000,000–250,000,000	Malaria	Worldwide	01900-01-0120th century –
50,000,000–100,000,000	Spanish Flu	Worldwide	01918-01-011918–1919
40,000,000–100,000,000	Tuberculosis	Worldwide	01900-01-0120th century –
approx. 40,000,000	Bubonic Plague: Plague of Justinian	Asia, Europe, Africa	00540-01-01540–590
25,250,000	AIDS	Worldwide	01981-01-011981–present (as of 2010)
? 12,000,000	Bubonic Plague: Third Pandemic	Worldwide	01850-01-011850s–1950s
5,000,000	Antonine Plague	Roman Empire	00165-01-01165–180
4,000,000	Asian Flu pandemic	Worldwide	01957-01-011957
750,000	Hong Kong Flu pandemic	Worldwide	01968-01-011968
6,255 (As of 10 September, 2009)	2009 flu pandemic	Worldwide	02009-01-01April 2009–present
775	Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS)	Mostly East Asia, few cases in Europe, Canada and United States	02002-01-012002–2003
677	West Nile Virus outbreak	North America	01999-01-011999–2004
256	H5N1 strain of Bird Flu	(mainly in Asia, few in Africa and Middle East)	02003-01-012003–present (as of 2007)

Famines

Please Note: Some of these famines may be partially or completely caused by humans.

Death Toll	Event	Location	Date
4,900,000–43,000,000	Great Chinese Famine	China	1958–1961
Chinese Famine of 1907	China	1907
19,000,000	Indian Famine	India	1896–1902
15,000,000	Bengal famine of 1770, incl. Bihar & Orissa	India	1769–1771
13,000,000	Northern Chinese Famine	China	1876–1879
10,000,000	Southern and Central Indian Famine	India	1876–1879
7,500,000	Great European Famine	Europe (all)	1315–1317
5,000,000	Chinese Famine of 1936	China	1936
5,000,000	Soviet famine of 1932–1933	Soviet Union	1932–1934
5,000,000	Russian famine of 1921	Russia, Ukraine	1921–1922
4,000,000	Bengal famine of 1943	India	1943
3,000,000	Chinese Drought 1941	China	1941
3,000,000	Chinese Famine of 1928–1930	China	1928–1930
2,000,000	Russian famine of 1601–1603	Russia (Muscovy)	1601–1603
1,000,000-1,500,000	Great Irish Famine	Ireland	1846–1849
2,000,000	Vietnamese War Famine	Vietnam	1943–1945
1,500,000–3,000,000	Bengal Famine of 1943	India	1943
1,200,000	North Korean famine	North Korea	1996–1998
1,000,000	1984–1985 famine in Ethiopia	Ethiopia	1984
1,000,000	Horn of Africa famine	Ethiopia, Sudan, Somalia	1888
26,000-1,000,000	Bangladesh famine of 1974—Official records claim 26,000. However, various sources claim about 1,000,000.	Bangladesh	1974
150,000	Finnish famine of 1866–1868	Finland	1866–1868
18,000	Dutch famine of 1944	The Netherlands	1944

See also

• List of disasters
• List of earthquakes
• List of famines
• List of epidemics
• List of all known deadly earthquakes since 1900
• Risks to civilization, humans and planet Earth

Other lists organized by death toll

• List of wars and disasters by death toll
• List of accidents and disasters by death toll
• List of battles and other violent events by death toll
• List of disasters in Australia by death toll
• List of Canadian disasters by death toll
• List of New Zealand disasters by death toll
• List of United Kingdom disasters by death toll
• List of United States disasters by death toll
• Tsunamis in the United Kingdom

Footnotes

1. The world's worst natural disasters
2. Italy's earthquake history, BBC News
3. 10 'Worst' Natural Disasters
4. Hurricanes: case studies
5. Worst Natural Disasters In History
6. Famine & Disaster Statistics
7. Torrey EF and Yolken RH. 2005. Their bugs are worse than their bite. Washington Post, April 3, p. B01.
8. 1918 Influenza: the Mother of All Pandemics, CDC

External links

• When Nature Attacks Newsweek
• Death Toll from Disasters, War, Terrorists
• World's worst natural disasters since 1900
• Plague – Encyclopaedia Britannica 1911
• Famine – Encyclopaedia Britannica 1911
• The worst Natural Disasters ever
• Forces of Nature: Worst Disasters
• Guinness Book of World Records
• USGS Earthquake Hazards Program
• EM-DAT: The International Disaster Database. Managed by the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters
• War Disaster and Genocide
• Worlds Worst Natural Disasters
• The dimension of famine
• Brief history of Population
• Facts on malnutrition & famine
• Emergency Management Australia, Disasters Database Report