by The chart shows the ten countries, at any point in history, with the highest cumulative death toll from earthquakes and other related natural disasters — such as tsunami or volcanic eruptions resulting from the initial shock – from 1900 to the present. Turkey has been in the group of countries most affected by earthquakes since the beginning and occupies, as of February 2023, the 8th position.
The death toll from this latest event, which was felt on February 6, 2023, had not yet been closed at the time of this publication. It is estimated to be close to 41,000 — and this estimate exceeds the death toll from all previous earthquakes recorded in Turkey. It will always be necessary to wait for the closure of the official count and confirm the number of Turkish and Syrian casualties to qualify as the worst earthquake in Turkey. It is certainly among the deadliest in this region — the WHO has deemed it “Europe’s worst natural disaster” of the last century.
In Turkey, more than 135,000 people lost their lives in 95 earthquakes during the period under review. In 1939, an earthquake of the same magnitude as the one now hitting Turkey and Syria—magnitude 7.8—caused the loss of 33,000 lives in Erzincan. In 1999 – the year with the most events recorded in the country – an earthquake felt on August 17 killed 17,000 people, one of five major earthquakes that year.
Since 1900, nearly 2.4 million people have lost their lives in 1118 earthquakes in 105 countries worldwide. China holds the record for the most dramatic event: 242 thousand deaths, caused by an earthquake measuring 7.5 on the Richter scale that struck the city of Tangshan on July 28, 1976.
Complete list of earthquakes with fatalities
Between 1900 and 2023*
*The number of victims of the earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria on February 6, 2023 is provisional (41,000) the rest of the data comes from the international disaster register The Emergency Events Database — EM-DAT
In the international disaster register The Emergency Events Database — EM-DAT 159 more earthquakes of a magnitude equal to or greater than those felt in Turkey and Syria have been detected, but only 11 countries record more casualties.
The strongest earthquake was recorded in Chile on May 22, 1960, with a magnitude greater than 9.5 on the Richter scale. The waves tsunami it reached Japan and New Zealand and killed 61 people in Hawaii. In Chile, 6,000 people died.
EM-DAT was created in 1988 by the Center for Research in Disaster Epidemiology (CRED). It has more than 22,000 international records of major natural disasters from 1900 to the present day. The first Portuguese record is from April 23, 1909 and mentions an earthquake in Benavente, Ribatejo, where 30 people lost their lives.
Portugal has three other earthquake records. The strongest earthquake was on February 28, 1969 — with a magnitude of 8 on the Richter scale. The other two records concern earthquakes felt in the Azores, in the central group of the archipelago. In 1980, a magnitude 7.2 earthquake claimed 69 lives and, more recently, in 1998, another earthquake claimed 10 lives.
Total annual deaths from earthquakes
Between 1900 and 2023*
*The number of victims of the earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria on February 6, 2023 is provisional (41,000) the rest of the data comes from the international disaster register The Emergency Events Database — EM-DAT
The graph above shows the annual total of deaths caused by earthquakes. The Tangshan (China) earthquake ties 1976 as the year with the most deaths, but that year alone there were 17 other earthquakes with casualties – Guatemala (23,000), the Philippines (6,000) and Turkey (3,840) were the most important.
The beginning of this century, between 2001 and 2010, is marked by the decade with the most deaths from earthquakes in the data of the international disaster register. In total, 680,151 died in 164 earthquakes. The earthquake that struck Indonesia and 11 other countries on December 26, 2004—which killed more than 226,000—and that in Haiti in 2010, with 222,570 deaths, stand out for their severity. These two facts put Haiti and Indonesia in the top 2 spots.in the and 3.in the positions of the most affected countries worldwide (original graph).
Total deaths by region
Between 1900 and 2023*
*The number of victims of the earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria on February 6, 2023 is provisional (41,000) the rest of the data comes from the international disaster register The Emergency Events Database — EM-DAT
Asia and the Middle East are the most affected regions and where the most deaths are recorded — 1.6 million deaths from earthquakes felt since 1900. Followed by South America and the Caribbean, with 430,000 victims, and Europe, with 268 thousand .
