List of natural disasters by death toll

A natural disaster is a sudden event that causes widespread destruction, major collateral damage, or loss of life, brought about by forces other than the acts of human beings. A natural disaster might be caused by earthquakes, flooding, volcanic eruption, landslide, hurricanes, etc. To be classified as a disaster, it must have profound environmental effects and/or loss of life and frequently causes financial loss.

This list takes into account only the highest estimated death toll for each disaster and lists them accordingly. It does not include epidemics and famines. The list also does not include the 1938 Yellow River flood, which was caused by the deliberate destruction of dikes. The Shaanxi earthquake has not been included here which killed approximately 830,000 people in 1556.

Death counts are historical totals unless indicated otherwise. Events in boldface are ongoing.

Note: Some of these famines may have been caused or partially caused by humans.

Note: Some of these floods and landslides may be partially caused by humans – for example, by failure of dams, levees, seawalls or retaining walls.
This list does not include the man-made 1938 Yellow River flood caused entirely by a deliberate man-made act (an act of war, destroying dikes).

Note: Measuring the number of deaths caused by a heat wave requires complicated statistical analysis, since heat waves tend to cause large numbers of deaths among people weakened by other conditions. As a result, the number of deaths is only known with any accuracy for heat waves in the modern era in countries with developed healthcare systems.

Note: Only 2 cases in recorded history.

Note: Earlier versions of this list have included the so-called 'Bombay Cyclone of 1882' in tenth position, but this supposed event has been proven to be a hoax.

Note: A possible tsunami in 1782 that caused about 40,000 deaths in the Taiwan Strait area may have been of "meteorological" origin (a cyclone).

Other lists organized by death toll

• Natural Hazards Data from NOAA National Geophysical Data Center
• "When Nature Attacks" from Newsweek
• World's worst natural disasters since 1900
• Earthquake Hazards Program – USGS
• EM-DAT: The International Disaster Database managed by the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters
• Disasters Database Report from Emergency Management Australia