Ranking the World's Deadliest Animals

The world's deadliest animal is also one of the smallest. Our World in Data ranks the mosquito as easy No. 1, responsible for an estimated 760,000 deaths worldwide in 2023. The vast majority of those deaths were from malaria. The site notes that the totals in its ranking are estimates, but that it's confident in the relative order of the ranking:

1. Mosquitoes, 760,000
2. Snakes, 100,000
3. Dogs, 40,000
4. Freshwater snails, 14,000
5. Kissing bugs, 8,000
6. Sandflies, 5,000
7. Roundworms, 4,000
8. Scorpions, 3,000
9. Tapeworms 2,000
10. Tsetse flies, 1,500

The only other animal to hit 1,000 is the elephant, with lesser numbers chalked up by bees, wasps, and hornets; big cats; crocodiles; jellyfish; hippos; spiders; bears; sharks; and wolves. See the full ranking and methodology.