List of famines

This is an incomplete list of major famines, ordered by date.

A complete list will almost certainly never become available.

5th century BC

• 440 BC famine in Ancient Rome.

2nd century BC

• Between 108 BC and 1911 AD there were no fewer than 1828 major famines in China, or one nearly every year in one or another province; however, the famines varied greatly in severity.

5th century AD

• Famine in Western Europe associated with the Fall of Rome and its sack by Alaric I. Between 400 and 800 AD, the population of the city of Rome fell by over 90%, mainly because of famine and plague. See Medieval demography.

7th century AD

• 639 AD - Famine in Arabia during the Caliphate of `Umar ibn Al-Khattab
• 650 Famine throughout India

8th century

• 750's famine in Spain

9th century

• 800-1000 AD, severe drought killed millions of Maya people with famine and thirst and initiated a cascade of internal collapses that destroyed their civilization
• 809 famine in Frankish Empire
• 875-884 peasant rebellion in China inspired by famine; Huang Chao captured capital

10th century

• 927 famine in Byzantine Empire

11th century

• 1005 Famine in England There were 95 famines in the Middle Ages.
• 1016 Famine throughout Europe
• 1022,1033 Great famines in India, in which entire provinces were depopulated
• 1064-1072 Seven years' famine in Egypt
• 1051 famine forced the Toltecs to migrate from a stricken region in what is now central Mexico
• 1066 famine in England

13th century

• 1199-1202 famine in Egypt
• 1230 famine in Novgorod
• 1231-1232 famine in Japan
• 1235 famine in England. 20,000 die in London, alone
• 1255 famine in Portugal
• 1258 famine in Germany and Italy
• 1294 famine in England

14th century

• 1315-1317 Great Famine in Europe
• 1333 famine in Portugal
• 1333-1334 famine in Spain
• 1333-1337 famine in China
• 1344-1345 Great famine in India
• 1387 after Timur the Lame left Asia Minor, severe famine ensued
• 1390 famine in England
• 1396-1407 The Durga Devi famine in India, lasting twelve years

15th century

• 1403-1404 famine in Egypt
• 1441 famine in Mayapan, Mexico
• 1445 famine in Korea
• 1450-1454 famine in Aztec Empire
• 1460 – 1461 Kanshō famine in Japan

16th century

• 1504 famine in Spain
• 1518 famine in Venice
• 1528 famine in Languedoc, France
• 1540 famine in Spain
• 1555 famine in England
• 1567-1570 famine in Harar in Ethiopia, combined with plague. Emir of Harar, died.
• 1574-1576 famine in Istanbul and Anatolia
• 1586 famine in England which gave rise to the Poor Law system
• 1590s famines in Europe

17th century

• 1599-1600 famine in Spain
• 1601-1603 one of the worst famines in all of Russian history; famine killed as many as 100,000 in Moscow and up to one-third of Tsar Godunov's subjects. Same famine killed about half Estonian population.
• 1611 famine in Anatolia
• 1618-1648 famines in Europe caused by Thirty Years' War
• 1619 famine in Japan. During the Tokugawa period, there were 154 famines, of which 21 were widespread and serious.
• 1623-1624 famine in England
• 1630-1631 Deccan famine in India kills 2,000,000 (Note: There was a corresponding famine in northwestern China, eventually causing the Ming dynasty to collapse in 1644.)
• 1636 famine in Spain
• 1648-1660 Poland lost an estimated 1/3 of its population due to the wars, famine, and plague
• 1649 famine in northern England
• 1650-1652 famine in the east of France
• 1651-1653 famine throughout much of Ireland during the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland
• 1661 famine in India, when not a drop of rain fell for two years
• 1661-1662 famine in Morocco
• 1661-1662 famine in France
• 1669 famine in Bengal
• 1680 famine in Sardinia
• 1680 famine in Japan
• 1680s famine in Sahel
• 1690s famine in Scotland which may have killed 15% of the population
• 1693-1694 famine in France which killed 2 million people
• 1695-1697 Great Famine of Estonia killed about a fifth of Estonian population (70 000 – 75 000 people). Famine also hit Sweden (80 000 – 100 000 dead)
• 1696-1697 famine in Finland wiped out almost a third of the population

18th century

• 1702-1704 famine in Deccan, India, killed 2 million people
• 1706-1707 famine in France
• 1708-1711 famine in East Prussia killed 250,000 people or 41% of its population
• 1709-1710 famine in France
• 1740-1741 famine in Ireland
• 1722 famine in Arabia
• 1727-1728 famine in England
• 1732 famine in Japan
• 1738-1739 famine in France
• 1738-1756 famine in West Africa, half the population of Timbuktu died of starvation
• 1741 famine in Norway
• 1750 famine in Spain
• 1764 famine in Naples
• 1769-1773 Bengal famine of 1770
• 1770-1771 famine in Czech lands killed hundreds of thousands people
• 1771-1772 famine in Saxony and southern Germany
• 1773 famine in Sweden
• 1779 famine in Rabat, Morocco
• 1780s Great Tenmei Famine in Japan
• 1783 famine in Iceland caused by Laki (volcano) eruption killed one-fifth of Iceland's population
• 1783-84 Chalisa famine in South Asia
• 1784 widespread famine throughout Egypt
• 1784-1785 famine in Tunisia killed up to one-fifth of all Tunisians
• 1788 famine in France. The two years previous to the French Revolution saw bad harvests and harsh winters, possibly because of a strong El Niño cycle caused by the 1783 Laki eruption at Iceland.
• 1789-92 Doji bara famine or Skull famine in India

19th century

• 1800-1801 famine in Ireland
• Four famines - in 1810, 1811, 1846, and 1849 - in China claimed nearly 45 million lives.
• 1811-1812 famine devastated Madrid, taking nearly 20,000 lives
• 1815 eruption Tambora, Indonesia. Tens of thousands died of subsequent famine
• 1816-1817 famine in Europe ( Year Without a Summer)
• 1830 famine killed almost half the population of Cape Verde
• 1830s Tenpo famine (Japan)
• 1835 famine in Egypt killed 200,000
• 1845-1849 Great Irish Famine killed more than 1 million people
• 1846 famine led to the peasant revolt known as “Maria da Fonte” in the north of Portugal
• 1846-1857 Highland Potato Famine in Scotland
• 1850-1873 as a result of Taiping Rebellion, drought, and famine, the population of China drop by over 60 million people
• 1866 Orissa famine of 1866 in India; one million perished
• 1866-1868 Famine in Finland. About 15% of the entire population died
• 1869 Rajputana famine of 1869 in India; one million and a half perished
• 1870-1871 famine in Persia is believed to have caused the death of 2 million persons
• 1873-1874 famine in Anatolia
• 1879 Famine in Ireland
• All mortality avoided in Bihar famine of 1873–74 in India.
• 1876-1879 Famine in India, China, Brazil, Northern Africa (and other countries). Famine in northern China killed 13 million people. 5.25 million died in the Great Famine of 1876–78 in India.
• 1888 famine in Sudan
• 1888-1892 Ethiopian Great famine. About one-third of the population died. Conditions worsen with cholera outbreaks (1889-92), a typhus epidemic, and a major smallpox epidemic (1889-90).
• 1891-1892 famine in Russia caused 375,000 to 500,000 deaths
• 1896-1897 famine in northern China
• 1896-1902 famine in India

20th century

• 1907 famine in east-central China
• 1914-1918 Mount Lebanon famine during World War I which killed about a third of the population
• 1914-1918 famine in Belgium
• 1916-1917 famine caused by the British blockade of Germany in WWI; up to 750,000 Germans starved to death
• 1916-1917 winter famine in Russia
• 1917-1919 famine in Persia. As much as 1/4 of the population living in the north of Iran died in the famine
• 1917-1921 a series of famines in Turkestan at the time of the Bolshevik revolution killed about a sixth of the population
• 1921 famine in Russia killed 5 million
• 1921-1922 Famine in Tatarstan
• 1921-1922 famine in Volga German colonies in Russia. One-third of the entire population perished
• 1928-1929 famine in northern China. The drought resulted in 3 million deaths
• 1928-1929 famine in Ruanda-Burundi, causing large migrations to the Congo
• 1932-1933 Soviet famine in Ukraine ( Holodomor), some parts of Russia and North Caucasus area. As many as 10 million people may have died
• 1932-1933 famine in Kazakhstan killed 1.2-1.5 million
• 1936 famine in China, with an estimated 5 million fatalities
• 1940-1943 famine in Warsaw Ghetto
• 1941-44 Leningrad famine caused by a 900-day blockade by Nazi and Finnish troops. About one million Leningrad residents starved, froze, or were bombed to death in the winter of 1941-42, when supply routes to the city were cut off and temperatures dropped to -40 degrees.
• 1941-1942 famine in Greece caused by Nazi occupation. An estimated 300,000 people perished
• 1942-1943 famine killed one million in China
• 1943 famine in Bengal
• 1943 famine in Ruanda-Urundi, causing migrations to the Congo
• 1944 famine in the Netherlands during World War II, more than 20,000 deaths
• 1945 famine in Vietnam
• 1946-1947 famine in Soviet Union
• 1959-1961 Great Leap Forward / The Great Chinese Famine (China). The official statistic is 20 million deaths, as given by Hu Yaobang
• 1966 famine in Bihar, India.
• 1967-1970 Biafran famine caused by Nigerian blockade
• 1968-1972 Sahel drought
• 1973 famine in Ethiopia; failure of the government to handle this crisis led to fall of Haile Selassie and to Derg rule
• 1974 famine in Bangladesh
• 1975-1979 Khmer Rouge. An estimated 2 million Cambodians lost their lives to murder, forced labor and famine
• 1980 famine in Karamoja, Uganda
• 1984 famine in Ethiopia
• 1991-1993 Somalian famine
• 1996 North Korean famine
• 1998 famine in Sudan caused by war and drought
• 1998-2000 famine in Ethiopia. The situation worsened by Eritrean-Ethiopian War
• 1998-2004 Second Congo War. 3.8 million people died, mostly from starvation and disease
• 2000-2008 Zimbabwe's food crisis caused by Mugabe's land reform policies

21st century

• 2003- famine in Sudan/Darfur (Darfur conflict)
• 2005 Malawi food crisis
• 2005-06 Niger food crisis
• 2006 Horn of Africa food crisis
• 2008- North Korean food crisis
• 2008- Horn of Africa food crisis
• 2008- Afghanistan food crisis
• 2008- Bangladesh food crisis
• 2008- East Africa food crisis