Most common cause of death in the history of the world?

Question

My friend is claiming that malaria has killed approximately half of all humans who have _ever_ lived. I am certain that the number of death due to malaria is not nearly that high. However, I cannot find a good source to settle this debate he and I are having about this claim.

Answer 1

Heart Failure

Answer 2

I don't think half is correct but malaria has probably killed more people than anything else worldwide. It infects over a half to 3/4 billion people annually and nearly 3 million people die from it every year. That is today, with the medication that is available. Years, decades, centuries, millenia... etc ago when there was no help for people in the subtropics. the death toll was incredible. Granted, much of the world isn't exposed to malaria as severely as these undeveloped nations so we dismiss it. That doesn't mean it isn't real.
But half, I kinda doubt it. Reminds me of the myth, half of all the people who ever lived are still alive today.

Answer 3

Well, traditionally the greatest killer around the tropics has been and in some cases still is malaria. And since most of the people have always lived in the tropics it makes since. It has even affected Americans. Why do you think Congess and the Supreme Court traditionally end session in Spring and start in Fall? D.C. was a swamp and before modern plumbing it was a malaria death sentence to hang in the capitol during the Summer.

Also up there would be, for women at least, is childbirth. I heard somewhere that pre-modern age (1900ish) it was the #1 killer of women.

Answer 4

Its been said that poverty is the number one killer all through history and more so today.

If you talk about recent history cancer and malaria are among the greatest killers (in numbers). Historically the Black Death (1347 a.d.) is considered one of the worst killers in history with a death rate of a third of the population of Euroשמגע

But actually number-wise the Spanish influenza which appeared in 1918 killed over 25 million people is considered the worst.

Even though in the ancient history there were other plagues that killed a lot of people while the population was much smaller, therefore I think the Spanish Influenza is the worst.

Answer 5

Of course we have no idea how most people in the past died. There are certainly no reliable statistics before the last few decades. But malaria has been killing lots of people for a very long time. Half sounds like an exaggeration, but it may well be the top killer.

Answer 6

Everything in life has almost two sides The way we interpret and use our religion is the key Religion will always be a good thing and a needed thing but the way people use it is the one that should be fixed or judged Religion sometimes like almost every thing in life is misused or actually abused to serve either selfish goals or to influence people. But that does not mean that is is the cause of damage to our world, since on the other hand religion has built civilizations, got people out of ignorance and lightened peoples paths

Answer 7

Currently in the United States, the most common cause of death is failure of the heart either via heart disease or heart attack. It is also more common in women than breast cancer etc...and any other cancer/disease still falls short of this. Mostly due to poor diet and exercise/regular physical activity. I actually had to do a report on something similar to this question. I posted a link to another source that has compiled loads of detailed information (with sources) for more information both in the U.S. and Worldwide. Hope this helps :)

Answer 8

If we're talking about all the humans who've ever lived, it's clearly not something that happened over a relatively short period such as the plague, or any epidemic.

I'd guess (and this is just a guess) that it's something excessively simple, like the common cold or eating infected food. Basically, stuff that'll happen to you for most of your species' existence if nobody knows that germs exist. Of course there's also freezing or starvation.

One last thing: no one dies of old age.

Answer 9

Malaria definitely isn't the most common cause of death. Throughout history, every epidemic surge has been referred to as a "plague", so in most cases we don't really know what kind of disease it was, but looking at the last couple of centuries, I'd say influenza and all its variants.

Answer 10

Since DDT was outlawed after the book " Silent Spring" was written in around 1965, millions have died from malaria.I think it was a million a year so were talking 40 million or so. There is a move to bring DDT back because the unintended consequences of outlawing DDT because it was dangerous, has been outstripped by malarial deaths.

I wish I had more accurate facts as I think it is probably more than what I used here.

Answer 11

Constant warfare and diseases brought on by bad hygene and lack of medical care should be the most common cause of death in the history of the world.