Last updated: 14 February 2011

Attempts to estimate civilian casualties from armed conflict face a number of particular challenges: it can be difficult to determine whether the victims were civilians or combatants. It can also be difficult to determine whether they were injured or killed because of the fighting or as a result of a non-conflict related incident.

Nonetheless, estimates of civilian casualties contribute to our understanding of the true costs of conflict. They can also be used by governments and militaries to develop harm-reduction strategies.

The Uppsala Conflict Data Program collects data on deaths from one-sided violence—i.e. reported and codable deaths of civilians who were targeted by a government or formally organized group. Civilians who are caught in the cross-fire are not included in one-sided violence totals.

The data presented here are ‘best estimates’ and provide a benchmark. It is very possible that there are more deaths than these statistics indicate, but it is unlikely that there are fewer.

The section on Violent Incidents also has data on Aid Workers, Journalists, Government Workers and Religious Worshippers.

These categories are not mutually exclusive and in some cases the datasets overlap.