List of epidemics and pandemics

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This article is a list of major pandemics and epidemics caused by infectious diseases in human history. Events in boldface are ongoing.

Epidemics with at least 1 million deaths

Rank	Epidemics/pandemics	Date	First outbreak	Location	Death toll
1	Black Death	1346–1353	Xi'an, China	Europe, Asia and North Africa	75–200 million
2	Spanish flu	1918–1920	Manhattan, Kansas, USA	Worldwide	17–100 million
3	Plague of Justinian	541–542	Pelusium, Egypt	Europe and West Asia	15–100 million
4	HIV/AIDS pandemic	1981–present	East Africa	Worldwide	44 million+ (2025)
5	Third plague pandemic	1855–1960	Yunnan, China	Worldwide	12–15 million
6	Cocoliztli Epidemic of 1545–1548	1545–1548	Mexico	North America	5–15 million
7	Antonine Plague	165–180	Seleucia, Iraq	Roman Empire	5–10 million
8	1520 Mexico smallpox epidemic	1519–1520	Mexico	North America	5–8 million
9	COVID-19 pandemic	2019–present	Wuhan, China	Worldwide	7.1-42 million (as of 2025)
10	Asian flu	1957–1958	Guizhou, China	Worldwide	1–4 million
	Hong Kong flu	1968–1969	Hong Kong	Worldwide
11	1918–1922 Russia typhus epidemic	1918–1922	Russia	Siberia	2–3 million
14	735–737 Japanese smallpox epidemic	735–737	Dazaifu, Fukuoka	Japan	2 million
	1772–1773 Persian Plague	1772–1773	Baghdad, Iraq	Persia	2 million
16	Naples Plague	1656–1658	Naples, Italy	Europe	1.25 million
17	Third cholera pandemic	1846–1860	Mecca, Saudi Arabia	Worldwide	1 million+
18	1629–1631 Italian plague	1629–1631	Milan, Italy	Europe	1 million
	1889–1890 flu pandemic	1889–1890	Bukhara, Russia	Worldwide	1 million

Worldwide Pandemics

• 1194-1184 BCE: influenza: Trojan War epidemic
• 713 BCE: influenza: Assyrian epidemic
• 430-425 BCE: influenza (?): Plague of Athens
• 165-180: Antonine Plague, perhaps smallpox
• 541: the Plague of Justinian
• 591-592: influenza: Extreme Cough
• 1300-50s: The Black Death in Europe and Asia during the Late Middle Age (Killed 60% of the population)
• 1501-1587: typhus
• 1729: influenza
• 1732-1733: influenza
• 1775-1776: influenza
• 1781: influenza
• 1816-1826: cholera
• 1829-1851: cholera
• 1830: influenza
• 1847-1848: influenza
• 1852-1860: cholera
• 1855-1950s: bubonic plague: Third Pandemic in China and India
• 1857-1859: influenza
• 1870-1874: smallpox
• 1863-1875: cholera
• 1881-1893: cholera
• 1889-1892: influenza
• 1899-1923: cholera
• 1918-1920: avian flu: Spanish flu: more people were hospitalized in World War I from this epidemic than wounds. Estimates of the dead range from 20 to 40 million worldwide (WHO)
• 1957-1958: influenza: avian flu: Asian flu
• 1961-present: cholera called El Tor
• 1981-present: HIV/AIDS (As of 2018, more than 32 million have died from AIDS)
• 1968-1969: influenza: avian flu: Hong Kong flu
• 2002-2003: SARS
• 2009-2010: 2009 flu pandemic (swine flu)
• 2019 to present: COVID-19 pandemic (Ongoing pandemic)

Regional

Related pages

• List of historical plagues

References

• Kuhnke, Laverne. Lives at Risk: Public Health in Nineteenth-Century Egypt. Berkeley: University of California Press, c1990.
• Gallagher, Nancy. Egypt's Other Wars: Epidemics and the Politics of Public Health. Syracuse University Press, c1990. Published by the American University in Cairo Press. ISBN 977-424-295-5
• Kinch, Michael. Between Hope and Fear: A History of Vaccines and Human Immunity. New York: Pegasus Books, 2018. ISBN 9781681777511
• Rosen, William, Justinian's Flea: Plague, Empire and the Birth of Europe, New York: Penguin Random House, 2008 ISBN 9780143113812