Kelut, Mount, Indonesia: see Kelud, Mount.

For man-made disasters see: List of wars and disasters by death toll

A death toll is the number of dead as a result of war, violence, accident, natural disaster, extreme weather, or disease.

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

Some events overlap categories.

Top Ten deadliest natural disasters

List excludes diseases and famines, which would otherwise occupy the entire list.

Rank	Event	Location	Date	Death Toll (Estimate)
1.	1931 China floods	China	01931-01-011931	2,000,000-4,000,000*
2.	1887 Yellow River flood	China	01887-01-011887, September–October	900,000–2,000,000
3.	1556 Shaanxi earthquake	Shaanxi Province, China	01556-01-011556, January 23	830,000+
4.	1970 Bhola cyclone	Bangladesh	01970-01-011970, November 13	500,000
5.	1839 India Cyclone	India	01839-01-011839, November 25	≥ 300,000
6.	2004 Indian Ocean earthquake/tsunami	Indian Ocean	02004-12-262004, December 26	283,100
7.	1526 Antioch earthquake	Turkey	00526-05-201526, May 20	250,000
8.	1976 Tangshan earthquake	Tangshan, Hebei, China	01976-07-281976, July 28	242,000
9.	1920 Haiyuan earthquake	Haiyuan, Ningxia-Gansu, China	01920-12-161920, December 16	240,000
10.	1975 Banqiao Dam failure	Henan, China	01975-08-011975, August	231,000

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

Deadliest natural disasters by kind of Event

Event	Event name	Location	Date	Death Toll (Estimate)
Avalanche	Wellington avalanche	United States	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	01556-01-011556
Flood	1931 China floods	China	01931-01-011931
Hailstorm	Roopkund, Uttaranchal	India	00800-01-019th century
Heat wave	European Heat Wave of 2003	Europe	02003-01-012003
Landslide	1999 Vargas mudslide	Venezuela	1999
Limnic Eruption	Lake Nyos	Cameroon	01986-01-011986
Pandemic	Black Death	worldwide	01330-01-011330–1351
Tornado	Saturia-Manikganj Sadar Tornado	Bangladesh	01989-04-26April 26, 1989
Tropical cyclone	1970 Bhola cyclone	Bangladesh	01970-11-13November 13, 1970
Tsunami	Indian Ocean Earthquake and Tsunami	Indian Ocean	02004-12-26December 26, 2004
Volcano	Mount Tambora	Indonesia	01815-01-011815
Wildfire	Peshtigo Fire	United States	01871-10-08October 8, 1871

Top Ten Deadliest Earthquakes

Death Toll	Event	Location	Date
$830,000	1556 Shaanxi earthquake	China	1556
$286,000	2004 Indian Ocean Earthquake	Indonesia	2004
$255,000	1976 Tangshan earthquake	China	1976
$240,000	1920 Haiyuan earthquake	China	1920
$ 230,000	1138 Aleppo earthquake	Syria	1138
$200,000	Damghan earthquake	Iran	856
$150,000	Ardabil earthquake	Iran	893
$137,000	1730 Hokkaidō earthquake	Japan	1730
$110,000	1948 Ashgabat earthquake	Turkmenistan	1948
$105,000	Great Kanto earthquake	Japan	1923

Top Ten Deadliest Volcanic eruptions

Death Toll	Event	Location	Date
$ 71,000	Mount Tambora (see also Year Without a Summer)	Indonesia	01815-01-011815
$36,000	Krakatoa	Indonesia	01883-08-26August 26 - August 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
$18,000	Mount Vesuvius	Italy	01631-01-011631
$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 supervolcano eruption at Lake Toba around 74,000 years ago is thought to have wiped out as much as 99% of the global human population, reducing the population from at most 60 million to less than 10 thousand; see Toba catastrophe theory. This eruption is not listed because it occurred before recorded history. Also, the Thera eruption in the Aegean Sea between 1550 and 1650 B.C. may have caused a large number of deaths throughout the region, from Crete to Egypt. See also La Garita Caldera, Yellowstone Caldera, and Supervolcanoes.

References

• Volcanoworld.org
• Global Volcanism Program
• USGS

Top Ten Deadliest Tsunamis

See Historic tsunami for more detailed information.

Death Toll	Event	Location	Date
$ > 350,000 (sources vary)	Indian Ocean earthquake with tsunami	Indian Ocean	2004
$100,000	1755 Lisbon earthquake, tsunami, earthquake and fire	Portugal, Morocco, Ireland and United Kingdom (Cornwall)	1755
$100,000	Messina, Italy earthquake and tsunami	Italy	1908
$36,000	Krakatoa volcano explosion	Indonesia	1883
$30,000	Tokaido-Nankaido	Japan	1707
$27,000		Japan	1826
$25,674	1868 Arica earthquake	Chile	1868
$22,070	Sanriku	Japan	1896
$15,030	Caused by Mount Unzen, Southwest Kyūshū	Japan	1792
$13,486		Ryukyu Trench	1771

Extreme weather

Top Ten Deadliest Heat waves

Death Toll	Event	Location	Date
37,451	European Heat Wave of 2003	Western Europe	02003-06-012003
3,418	European Heat Wave of 2006	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	India	02003-01-012009
1,250–10,000	1980 United States heat wave	United States	01980-01-011980
1,000–1,500	1987 Mediterranean heat wave	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

Top Ten Deadliest Storms (non-cyclone)

Death Toll	Event	Location	Date
15,100	Torrential rains and mudslides	Venezuela	1999
669 (and 695 missing)	Heavy storms ("Winnie")	Philippines	2004
500	Lofoten, Heavy storm	Norway	1849
≥ 250	Great Lakes Storm of 1913	United States and Canada (Great Lakes region)	1913
210	Trøndelag, storm ("Follastormen")	Norway	1625
189	Eyemouth, Scotland, storm ("Black Friday")	United Kingdom	1881
140	Trøndelag, storm ("Titran disaster")	Norway	1899
96	Lofoten, storm	Norway	1868
30	Haugesund, storm ("Røvær disaster")	Norway	1899
26	Vesterålen, storm	Norway	1802

Top Ten Deadliest Tornadoes

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

Top Ten Deadliest Cyclones, hurricanes and typhoons

Death Toll	Event	Location	Date
500,000	1970 Bhola cyclone	Bangladesh (East Pakistan)	1970
300,000	1839 Indian cyclone	India	1839
300,000	1881 Haiphong Typhoon	Vietnam	1881
300,000	1737 Calcutta cyclone	India	1737
210,000	Super Typhoon Nina—contributed to Banqiao Dam failure	China	1975
200,000	1876 Bengal cyclone	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

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

Top Ten Deadliest Wildfires, bushfires

Death Toll	Event	Location	Date
$1,200–2,500	Peshtigo Fire, Wisconsin	United States	1871
$453	Cloquet Fire, Minnesota	United States	1918
$418	Hinckley Fire, Minnesota	United States	1894
$≥ 250	Thumb Fire, Michigan	United States	1881
$200–250	Matheson Fire, Ontario	Canada	1916
$240	Sumatra, Kalimantan	Indonesia	1997
$230	Landes region	France	1949
$213	Greater Hinggan, Heilongjiang	China	1987
$160	Miramichi Fire, New Brunswick	Canada	1825
$110	1963 Paraná Forest fires,	Brazil	1963

References

• Department of Sustainability and Environment
• Emergency Management Australia

Top Ten Deadliest Blizzards

Death Toll	Event	Location	Date
$4,000	Iran Blizzard	Iran	1972
$1,317	2008 Afghanistan blizzard with snow storm	Afghanistan	2008
$400	Great Blizzard of 1888	United States	1888
$318	1993 North American Storm Complex	United States	1993
$235	Schoolhouse Blizzard	United States	1888
$199	Hakkōda Mountains during military training exercise	Japan	1902
$144	Armistice Day Blizzard	United States	1940
$133	2008 China Blizzard during snow storm	China	2008
$112	1995 Kazakh Blizzard during snow storm	Kazakhstan	1995
$54	Blizzard of 1978	United States	1978

Top Ten Deadliest Famines

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

Death Toll	Event	Location	Date
20,000,000–43,000,000	Great Chinese Famine	China	1958–1961
24,000,000	Chinese Famine of 1907	China	1907
19,000,000	Indian Famine	India	1896–1902
15,000,000	Bengal famine of 1770, incl. Bihar & Orissa	India	1769–1771
13,000,000	Northern Chinese Famine	China	1876–1879
10,000,000	Southern and Central Indian Famine	India	1876–1879
7,500,000	Great European Famine	Europe	1315–1317
5,000,000	Chinese Famine of 1936	China	1936
5,000,000	Holodomor	Ukraine	1932–1934
5,000,000	Ukraine and Volga Famine	Ukraine, Russia	1921–1922
4,000,000	Bengal famine of 1943	India	1943
3,000,000	Chinese Drought 1941	China	1941
3,000,000	Chinese Famine of 1928–1930	China	1928–1930

Footnotes

See also

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

Other lists organized by death toll

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

External links

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