Wars and armed conflicts

Throughout the history of man, there have been many battles and armed conflicts. Unfortunately, it seems as though world peace is way out of our reach. Below I have listed the worst armed conflicts in history so far with the estimated death toll, years of duration, and location. (The death toll estimates include death of civilians, soldiers in battle, and those who have died from diseases, famine, etc.)

These figures of one million or more deaths include the deaths of civilians from diseases, famine, etc., as well as deaths of soldiers in battle and possible massacres and genocide. Where only one estimate is available, it appears in both the low and high estimates. This is a sortable table. Click on the column sort buttons to sort results numerically or alphabetically.

Wars and armed conflicts

Lowest estimate	Highest estimate	Event	Location	From	To	See also	Percentage of the world population^[1]
40,000,000	72,000,000	World War II	Worldwide	1939	1945	World War II casualties and Second Sino-Japanese War^[4]	1.7%–3.1%
30,000,000	30,000,000	Late Yuan warfare and transition to Ming Dynasty	China	1340	1368	Ming Dynasty	6.7%
25,000,000	25,000,000	Qing dynasty conquest of the Ming Dynasty	China	1616	1662	Qing Dynasty	4.8%
20,000,000	100,000,000	Taiping Rebellion	China	1851	1864	Dungan revolt	1.6%–8%
15,000,000	65,000,000	World War I (High estimate includes Spanish flu deaths)^[14]	Worldwide	1914	1918	World War I casualties	0.8%–3.6%
15,000,000	20,000,000	Conquests of Timur-e-Lang	West Asia, South Asia, Central Asia, Russia	1369	1405		3.4%–4.5%
13,000,000	36,000,000	An Lushan Rebellion	China	755	763	Medieval warfare	5.5%–15.3%
8,000,000	12,000,000	Dungan revolt	China	1862	1877	Panthay Rebellion	0.6%–0.9%
5,000,000	30,000,000	Conquests by the Empire of Japan	Asia	1894	1945
5,000,000	9,000,000	Russian Civil War	Russia	1917	1921	Russian Revolution (1917), List of civil wars	0.28%–0.5%
2,500,000	5,400,000	Second Congo War	Democratic Republic of the Congo	1998	2003	First Congo War	0.06%–0.09%
3,500,000	7,000,000	Napoleonic Wars	Europe, Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Ocean	1803	1815	Napoleonic Wars casualties	0.4%–0.7%
3,000,000	11,500,000	Thirty Years' War	Holy Roman Empire	1618	1648	Religious war	0.5%–2.1%
3,000,000	7,000,000	Yellow Turban Rebellion	China	184	205	Part of Three Kingdoms War	1.3%–3.1%
1,000,000	3,000,000	Nigerian Civil War	Nigeria	1967	1970	Genocides in history	0.03%-0.09%
1,500,000	2,000,000	Afghan Civil War	Afghanistan	1979	Present	Soviet-Afghan War, Taliban Era, and NATO Intervention. Death toll estimates through 1999 (2M) and 2000 (1.5M and 2M).	0.06%
3,000,000	4,000,000	Deluge	Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth	1655	1660	Second Northern War	0.6%–0.7%
400,000	4,500,000	Korean War	Korean Peninsula	1950	1953	Cold War	0.1%
800,000	3,000,000	Vietnam War	Southeast Asia	1955	1975	Cold War and First Indochina War	0.08%–0.19%
2,000,000	4,000,000	French Wars of Religion	France	1562	1598	Religious war	0.4%–0.8%
2,000,000	2,000,000	Shaka's conquests	Africa	1816	1828	Ndwandwe–Zulu War	0.2%
1,000,000	2,000,000	Second Sudanese Civil War	Sudan	1983	2005	Religious war	0.02%
1,000,000	3,000,000	Crusades	Holy Land, Europe	1095	1291	Religious war	0.3%–2.3%
600,000	2,000,000	Soviet War in Afghanistan	Afghanistan	1980	1988	Cold War	0.012%–0.04%
800,000	1,000,000	Du Wenxiu Rebellion	China	1856	1873
500,000	2,000,000	Mexican Revolution	Mexico, United States	1911	1920	Pancho Villa and Columbus Raid	0.03%–0.1%
500,000	2,000,000			1980	1988	Al-Anfal Campaign and Invasion of Kuwait	0.01%–0.04%
400,000	800,000	American Civil War	United States,Confederate States	1861	1865		0.03%–0.06%
300,000	1,200,000	Paraguayan War	South America	1864	1870	Military history of South America and Luís Alves de Lima e Silva, Duke of Caxias	0.02%–0.08%