The Human Cost
3,500,000
estimated total dead
Each dot below represents 1,000 human lives. Scroll to watch the scale unfold.
2,000,000 soldiers killed in combat, from wounds, or from disease. Each = 1,000 lives.
1,500,000 civilians killed — from violence, famine, disease, and displacement. Wars are not fought only by soldiers.
incl. 10,000 civilians
incl. 50,000 civilians
incl. 5,000 civilians
incl. 40,000 civilians
incl. 5,000 civilians
incl. 100,000 civilians
incl. 30,000 civilians
incl. 3,000 civilians
How Warring States's dead compare to other conflicts and events.
400,000 dead
The figure of 400,000 prisoners buried alive at Changping comes from Sima Qian a century and a half later; modern historians suspect exaggeration but agree the massacre was real and enormous.
2,000,000 dead
Casualty totals for the Warring States are impressionistic estimates built from chronicle figures that were often inflated for effect; the true scale is unknowable but was among the deadliest of the ancient world.
3,500,000 dead
Beyond battle deaths, repeated conscription, siege famines, floods used as weapons, and the disruption of farming across 254 years killed vast numbers whom no record counted.