Research
Death Vault
A serious look at mortality data
Curated mortality statistics, life expectancy and cause-of-death data presented for general audiences.
Death Vault presents curated mortality data — life expectancy, leading causes of death and historical death tolls — in plain language for general audiences.
Its figures are drawn from public-health and historical sources and shown without sensationalism.
The site is free to use and requires no account.
Key pages
- World War II deaths
World War II caused an estimated 60 to 75 million deaths, most of them civilians: around 50 to 55 million civilian deaths against 21 to 25 million military.
- Black Death
The Black Death remains the deadliest pandemic in recorded history measured as a share of the population it reached.
- Spanish flu
The 1918 influenza pandemic was not Spanish in origin; it took the name because wartime censorship left Spain free to report it.
