The Death Toll Of History's Most Fatal Pandemics, Visualized

Throughout the centuries, humanity has faced deadly pandemics such as smallpox and the bubonic plague, but how does the death toll and infectiousness of COVID-19 compare to the pandemics of the past?

This infographic from Visual Capitalist gives us a sense of the scale of the pandemics that have come before, from the Antonine Plague, which hastened the disintegration of the Roman Empire, to more recent pandemics, such as Ebola and the swine flu.

According to the infographic, the bubonic plague, also known as the Black Death, has the highest death toll in the history of human pandemics, claiming a total of approximately 200 million lives. Following in second is smallpox, which killed off 56 million people and was finally globally eradicated in 1980. COVID-19, which is still in its early stages, has so far led to around 6,400 fatalities.

[Read more at Visual Capitalist]