This is a list of accidents and disasters by death toll. It shows the number of fatalities associated with various explosions, structural fires, flood disasters, coal mine disasters, and other notable accidents caused by negligence connected to improper architecture, planning, construction, design, and more. Purposeful disasters, such as military or terrorist attacks, are omitted. While all of the listed accidents caused immediately massive numbers of lives lost, further widespread deaths were connected to many of these incidents, often the result of prolonged or lingering effects of the initial catastrophe. This was the case particularly in such cases as exposure to contaminated air, toxic chemicals or radiation, some years later due to lung damage, cancer, etc. Some numbers in the table below reflect both immediate and delayed deaths related to accidents, while many do not.

Engineering

Explosions

Industrial

Nuclear and radiation

Structural collapses

Structural fires

Recreation

Amusement parks

Crowd crushes

Sporting events

Transportation

Aviation

Cable cars

Elevators

Peacetime maritime

Rail

Road

Space

Other

Smog