The Human Cost
3,600
disputed broad estimate
The display allocation rounds the documented total of roughly 3,500 deaths and divides status categories imperfectly. It should not be read as a precise military/civilian taxonomy; CAIN records 3,532 conflict-related deaths in its Sutton Index.
Each dot below represents 1,000 human lives. Scroll to watch the scale unfold.
Working allocation: 1,500 soldiers killed in combat, from wounds, or from disease. Each = 1,000 lives.
2,100 civilians killed — from violence, famine, disease, and displacement. Wars are not fought only by soldiers.
incl. 29 civilians
incl. 4 civilians
incl. 21 civilians
incl. 14 civilians
incl. 11 civilians
incl. 11 civilians
incl. 7 civilians
How The Troubles's dead compare to other conflicts and events.
29 dead
The 1998 Omagh bombing, killing 29 people plus two unborn children, was the single deadliest attack of the entire conflict — and came months after the peace was signed.
1,840 dead
Roughly half of the more than 3,500 people killed in the Troubles were civilians — the ordinary people of Northern Ireland caught between the paramilitaries and the state.
3,500 dead
In a population of around 1.5 million, some 3,500 deaths meant almost everyone in Northern Ireland knew someone killed or injured — a proportion equivalent to hundreds of thousands in a country the size of Britain.