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 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.
The United Nations Convention Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide
(CPPCG) defines genocide in part as "acts committed with intent to
destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious
group". Determining what historical events constitute a genocide and
which are merely criminal or inhuman behavior is not a clear-cut matter.
In nearly every case where accusations of genocide have circulated,
partisans of various sides have disputed the interpretation and details
of the event, often to the point of promoting different versions of the
facts. An accusation of genocide will almost always be controversial.
Determining the number of persons killed in each genocide can be just as
difficult, with political, religious and ethnic biases or prejudices
often leading to downplayed or exaggerated figures. Some of the accounts
below may include ancillary causes of death such as malnutrition and
disease, which may or may not have been intentionally inflicted
