Here’s a ranking of the continents by deaths in war throughout history, based on historical records and estimates:
Pinker’s Chapter 5 supplement — why historical death-toll rankings need an uncertainty audit
Chapter 5 shows why the continental totals below should be treated as rough prompts, not measured facts. Ancient and medieval conflicts leave sparse and inconsistent records; “war” can be lumped or split in different ways; indirect famine and disease deaths may or may not be counted; empires and theaters cross modern continental boundaries; and dense modern documentation makes recent violence easier to retrieve. Pinker also distinguishes absolute deaths from population-adjusted impact: scaling an old event to the world population of the mid-twentieth century asks how large its demographic shock was, not how many people literally died.
Ranked-war table and Figure 5-3 — Selected wars and atrocities by absolute and population-adjusted toll, and one hundred events plotted across time. Pinker’s table and plot inherit Matthew White’s median-or-modal reconciliation of secondary estimates, use McEvedy and Jones for historical world population, include indirect deaths, and do not adjust for event duration. Pinker explicitly notes missing small ancient events and the greater uncertainty of older estimates. These visuals are useful for detecting population scaling and historical myopia; they do not validate a precise all-time ranking by continent or settle disputed casualty totals. Chapter 5 synthesis · Population scaling, availability, and source method, PDF pp. 279–282 (file not included in this release) · Ranked wars and atrocities table, PDF p. 282 (file not included in this release) · Figure 5-3 and the missing-record funnel, PDF pp. 285–288 (file not included in this release)
1. Asia
• Estimated Deaths: Over 100 million (possibly much higher).
• Key Factors:
• Long history of massive wars, including ancient, medieval, and modern conflicts.
• High population density leading to large-scale participation in wars.
• Examples:
• World War II in Asia (25–30 million).
• Taiping Rebellion (20–30 million).
• Mongol Conquests (30–40 million).
• Wars during the Chinese dynasties, Korean War, Vietnam War.
2. Europe
• Estimated Deaths: Around 80–100 million (depending on scope and inclusion).
• Key Factors:
• Frequent wars over millennia, including religious wars, colonial conflicts, and large-scale global wars.
• Examples:
• World War I (20 million).
• World War II in Europe (40–50 million).
• Napoleonic Wars (3–6 million).
• 30 Years’ War (8 million).
3. Africa
• Estimated Deaths: Over 30 million (potentially much higher when including slavery and colonial conflicts).
• Key Factors:
• Devastation from conflicts like the transatlantic and Arab slave trades.
• Colonial wars, tribal conflicts, and modern civil wars.
• Examples:
• Rwandan Genocide (800,000).
• Second Congo War (5 million).
• Centuries of conflict tied to slavery and imperialism.
4. North America
• Estimated Deaths: Around 10–20 million.
• Key Factors:
• Native American wars and European colonization.
• Civil wars and participation in world wars.
• Examples:
• Conquest of Indigenous Peoples (~10 million).
• American Civil War (620,000–750,000).
• Revolutionary and colonial wars.
5. South America
• Estimated Deaths: Around 5–15 million.
• Key Factors:
• Conquest by European colonizers, including the near-eradication of Indigenous civilizations.
• Internal conflicts and revolutionary wars.
• Examples:
• Deaths from the conquest of the Aztec and Inca empires.
• Wars of independence and civil wars in the 19th and 20th centuries.
6. Oceania
• Estimated Deaths: Less than 1 million.
• Key Factors:
• Sparse population relative to other continents.
• Conflicts were smaller in scale but included colonization, such as the Black War in Tasmania and the effects of European settlement on Indigenous populations.
Summary of Ranking
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Asia: Over 100 million deaths.
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Europe: Around 80–100 million deaths.
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Africa: Over 30 million deaths.
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North America: Around 10–20 million deaths.
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South America: Around 5–15 million deaths.
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Oceania: Less than 1 million deaths.