38 Million.
Fifty years, thirty-eight million deaths. Roughly ten million in wars, twenty-eight million in sanctions. America's allies, every one of them — and New Zealand stood beside several. Move through the timeline below; the map lights up wherever the bombs fell or the sanctions bit.
The film is still being rendered. The interactive timeline below is the data behind it — explore it now.
Where the dying happened, year by year.
- Move the scrubber to begin.
Methodology & sources.
Thirty-eight million. Approximately ten million killed in wars — Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, and more. Plus twenty-eight million killed by economic sanctions — over half a million deaths every single year, for over fifty years.
One running total. Every death counted. Every year. On one map.
Wars
Death tolls per conflict use mainstream historical estimates — primarily Britannica, Brown University's Costs of War Project, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, and contemporaneous human rights reporting. Where estimates differ wildly, the timeline uses a central figure with a low/high band recorded in the underlying data file.
Sanctions
The sanctions total is anchored to the August 2025
Lancet Global Health study that put the annual death toll from
US-led economic sanctions at roughly
564,000 per year, peaking near
1,000,000 per year during the
1990s Iraq regime. Roughly 51% of those
deaths are children. Per-year figures between known anchors are linearly
interpolated — the source data lives in
src/data/sanctions.ts.
Per-event sources
- Korean War (1950–1953) — 3,000,000 deaths. Source: Britannica; Cumings, The Korean War: A History.
- Vietnam War (1955–1975) — 3,400,000 deaths. Source: Britannica; Vietnam Ministry of Labour.
- Laos Secret War (1964–1973) — 200,000 deaths. Source: Legacies of War; Al Jazeera.
- Cambodia Bombing (1965–1973) — 500,000 deaths. Source: Yale Cambodian Genocide Program; Owen & Kiernan.
- Dominican Republic Intervention (1965) — 3,000 deaths. Source: Britannica; US State Department historical records.
- Gulf War (1991) — 50,000 deaths. Source: Britannica; Hiro, Desert Shield to Desert Storm.
- Yugoslavia/Kosovo NATO Bombing (1999) — 2,000 deaths. Source: Human Rights Watch; ICTY records.
- Afghanistan War (2001–2021) — 176,000 deaths. Source: Brown University Costs of War Project.
- Iraq War (2003–2011) — 400,000 deaths. Source: Brown University Costs of War Project; Lancet survey.
- Pakistan Drone Strikes (2004–2018) — 3,000 deaths. Source: Bureau of Investigative Journalism.
- Somalia Drone Strikes (2007–2024) — 2,000 deaths. Source: Bureau of Investigative Journalism; Airwaves.
- Libya Intervention (2011) — 15,000 deaths. Source: Amnesty International; NATO records.
- Syria US Coalition (2014–2024) — 4,000 deaths. Source: Airwaves; CENTCOM civilian casualty reports.
- Yemen Saudi Coalition War (2015–2022) — 377,000 deaths. Source: UNDP Yemen report; ACLED.
- Afghanistan Asset Freeze (2021–2026) — 100,000 deaths. Source: International Rescue Committee; UNDP Afghanistan report.
- Cuba Sanctions Escalation (2022–2026) — 50,000 deaths. Source: Center for Economic and Policy Research; Cuba Ministry of Health.
- Iran Ongoing Sanctions (2022–2026) — 30,000 deaths. Source: Human Rights Watch; Lancet Iran sanctions study.
- Yemen Ongoing Crisis (2022–2026) — 100,000 deaths. Source: UNDP Yemen impact assessment.
- Gaza War (2023–2026) — 100,000 deaths. Source: Gaza Ministry of Health; Lancet estimate.
Sanctions regimes shown
- Cuba · 1962–now
- North Korea · 1950–now
- Iran · 1979–now
- Libya · 1986–2003
- Iraq · 1990–2003
- Yugoslavia/Serbia · 1991–2001
- Sudan · 1993–2017
- Haiti · 1991–1994
- Myanmar · 1988–2013
- Zimbabwe · 2001–2024
- Syria · 2004–2025
- Belarus · 2004–now
- Venezuela · 2017–now
- Russia · 2014–now
- Afghanistan · 2021–now
- Somalia · 1992–now