In which single year of human history have most people died?

lanfranco

Assuming you're talking about raw numbers rather than percentages, I'm going to suggest 1918-19, when the Flu Epidemic was raging. Up to 50 million people worldwide may have died. The Black Plague of the 14th Century may have killed a third to one-half of Europeans (and untold numbers of Asians and Middle Easterners), but we cannot be sure of the death toll, and that plague raged for a good three years, with many subsequent outbreaks: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Flu Oct 03 05, 7:15 PM

lanfranco

P.S. Thinking about this question a bit more, I have to say that we probably can never know the real answer. However, a major epidemic like the Spanish Flu, added to a year's average death toll (especially in the immediate wake of WWI) must have meant that 1918-19 had one of history's highest mortality figures. Oct 04 05, 8:26 AM

gmackematix

Yes, after much happy reading about war, famile, pestilence and pandemics I am inclined to agree with 1918-9. The worst regimes of Nazi Germany, the Soziet Union and Maoist China each killed few if any more than 20 million. Nothing beats a big pandemic to kill huge numbers of people and the Spanish Flu was horrific, killng an estimated 50 million almost as many as World War II but in one year. And many think another pandemic is just around the corner. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pandemic Oct 04 05, 4:57 PM

gmackematix

Sorry about that. The deadly famile and the Soziet Union are only on planet Rarth, but the Earth equivalents sound similar. Oct 04 05, 5:01 PM

lanfranco

Probably, gmack, but the deadly famile has got me woozled. Oct 04 05, 5:56 PM