List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll
Leader ( s ) Lowest estimate Highest estimate Geom . mean estimate Location From Until Duration Notes
Mao Zedong 13,597,000 70,000,000 + 30,851,094 People 's Republic of China 1946 1976 30 years Critics of Mao Zedong have argued Mao 's China saw unprecedented losses of human life through inhuman economic policies such as the Great Leap Forward , slave labor through the Laogai , violent political purges such as the Cultural Revolution the Campaign to Suppress Counterrevolutionaries , and class extermination through land reform The estimate of the minimum death toll is the sum of the minimum estimate of famine dead ( 11.6 million ) , land reform dead ( 800,000 ) , Counterrevolutionaries dead ( 712,000 ) , and Cultural Revolution dead ( 400,000 ) plus the minimum killed in the 1959 Tibetan uprising ( 85,000 to 87,000 ) See also : History of the People 's Republic of China ( 1949-1976 )
Genghis Khan Timur Kublai Khan 20,000,000 40,000,000 30,945,906 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
Adolf Hitler 13,518,250 25,495,692 + 18,564,944 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 , the disabled , homosexuals , Freemasons , POWs , and the Jehovah 's Witnesses 4,900,000 to 6,200,000 Jews killed ( 2/3s to 78% of European Jewry killed ) 7,405,000 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 ) 3,135,000 to 3,325,000 Non-Jewish Soviet POWs killed by Nazis 1,800,000 to 2,770,000 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 to 600,000 Serbians killed by the Ustaše 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
Chiang Kai-Shek 5,965,000 18,522,000 10,511,124 Republic of China 1928 1946 18 years Primarily from conscription campaigns but also grain confiscations and other atrocities . See also : Mass killings under the Chinese Nationalist government
Joseph Stalin 3,300,000 15,000,000 8,990,772 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 . 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 Timothy D. Snyder in 2011 said that Stalin approximately killed 6 million to 9 million see also Excess mortality in the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin
Hirohito 3,000,000 14,000,000 6,480,741 In and around East and South East Asia , Oceania and the Pacific 1895 1945 50 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 13 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 . Significant deaths also occurred due to major disease outbreaks and starvation , caused by population displacement and poor treatment . 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
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 1833-39 , and from 750,000 to 130,000 between 1829-42 in Imerina . These statistics have contributed to a strongly unfavorable view of Ranavalona 's rule in historical accounts
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 2,810,000 2,045,505 Ottoman Empire 1913 1922 9 years Under the Young Turks ' regime that took powerin 1908 , the Ottoman Empire committed various genocides and ethnic cleansings . The death toll is derived from the sum of the death tolls of the Armenian Genocide ( 800,000 to 1,500,000 ) , Assyrian Genocide ( 150,000 to 300,000 ) , Greek Genocide ( 289,000 to 750,000 ) , ethnic cleansing of the Thracian Bulgarians in 1913 ( 50,000 to 60,000 ) , and the Great Famine of Mount Lebanon ( 200,000 )
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 Il-sung , Kim Jong-il , and Kim Jong-un 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 . Over two-hundred thousand people are interned in concentrations camps for being political dissidents or being related to political dissidents . They are subject to slavery , torture , starvation , shootings , gassing , and human experimentation . See also : Human rights in North Korea
Suharto 240,500 3,418,000 + 906,658 + Indonesia 1965 1998 33 years 65/66 Politicide : 78,500 to 3,000,000 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
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
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 158,000 628,000 314,998 Italy , Libya , Ethiopia , Yugoslavia , Greece 1922 1945 24 years 80,000 to 125,000 or over 1/4 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
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
List of political leaders and regimes by death toll
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 .
This is a list of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll. It covers the name of the event, the 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.