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Data

Share of deaths from violence in non-state societies

About this data

Source
Various sources (2013) – processed by Our World in Data
Last updated
January 1, 2013
Date range
2019–2019
Unit
%

Sources and processing

This data is based on the following sources

Various sources – Ethnographic and archaeological evidence on violent deaths

This dataset contains estimates of the frequency of violent deaths due to murder or war in modern and prehistoric state and non-state societies, based on archaeological and ethnographic evidence.

For modern state societies, homicide rates are routinely published by statistical offices or other state agencies, and reliable data on war deaths are published by research institutes. For non-state societies, we generally have two different sources of information: for the more recent past (since the late 19th century), abundant ethnographic evidence is available; for the more distant past, we have evidence from archaeological sites and skeletal remains.

The main sources for this dataset are as follows:

  • Bowles (2009) – Did Warfare Among Ancestral Hunter-Gatherers Affect the Evolution of Human Social Behaviors?. In Science, 324, 5932, 1293–1298.
  • Gat (2006) – War in Human Civilization. Oxford University Press, USA.
  • Knauft, Bruce M. et al (1987) – Reconsidering Violence in Simple Human Societies: Homicide among the Gebusi of New Guinea. In Current Anthropology, 28, 4, 457-500.
  • Keeley (1997) – War Before Civilization: The Myth of the Peaceful Savage. Oxford University Press, USA.
  • Pinker (2011) – The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined. Viking.
  • Walker and Bailey (2013) – Body counts in lowland South American violence. In Evolution and Human Behavior, 34, 1, 29–34.
Retrieved on
January 1, 2013
Citation
This is the citation of the original data obtained from the source, prior to any processing or adaptation by Our World in Data. To cite data downloaded from this page, please use the suggested citation given in Reuse This Work below.
Bowles, S. (2009); Gat, A. (2008); Knauft, B. M. et al. (1987); Keeley, L. H. (1996); Pinker, S. (2011); and Walker, R. S., and Bailey, D. H. (2013).

This dataset contains estimates of the frequency of violent deaths due to murder or war in modern and prehistoric state and non-state societies, based on archaeological and ethnographic evidence.

For modern state societies, homicide rates are routinely published by statistical offices or other state agencies, and reliable data on war deaths are published by research institutes. For non-state societies, we generally have two different sources of information: for the more recent past (since the late 19th century), abundant ethnographic evidence is available; for the more distant past, we have evidence from archaeological sites and skeletal remains.

The main sources for this dataset are as follows:

  • Bowles (2009) – Did Warfare Among Ancestral Hunter-Gatherers Affect the Evolution of Human Social Behaviors?. In Science, 324, 5932, 1293–1298.
  • Gat (2006) – War in Human Civilization. Oxford University Press, USA.
  • Knauft, Bruce M. et al (1987) – Reconsidering Violence in Simple Human Societies: Homicide among the Gebusi of New Guinea. In Current Anthropology, 28, 4, 457-500.
  • Keeley (1997) – War Before Civilization: The Myth of the Peaceful Savage. Oxford University Press, USA.
  • Pinker (2011) – The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined. Viking.
  • Walker and Bailey (2013) – Body counts in lowland South American violence. In Evolution and Human Behavior, 34, 1, 29–34.
Retrieved on
January 1, 2013
Citation
This is the citation of the original data obtained from the source, prior to any processing or adaptation by Our World in Data. To cite data downloaded from this page, please use the suggested citation given in Reuse This Work below.
Bowles, S. (2009); Gat, A. (2008); Knauft, B. M. et al. (1987); Keeley, L. H. (1996); Pinker, S. (2011); and Walker, R. S., and Bailey, D. H. (2013).

How we process data at Our World in Data

All data and visualizations on Our World in Data rely on data sourced from one or several original data providers. Preparing this original data involves several processing steps. Depending on the data, this can include standardizing country names and world region definitions, converting units, calculating derived indicators such as per capita measures, as well as adding or adapting metadata such as the name or the description given to an indicator.

At the link below you can find a detailed description of the structure of our data pipeline, including links to all the code used to prepare data across Our World in Data.

Read about our data pipeline

Reuse this work

  • All data produced by third-party providers and made available by Our World in Data are subject to the license terms from the original providers. Our work would not be possible without the data providers we rely on, so we ask you to always cite them appropriately (see below). This is crucial to allow data providers to continue doing their work, enhancing, maintaining and updating valuable data.
  • All data, visualizations, and code produced by Our World in Data are completely open access under the Creative Commons BY license. You have the permission to use, distribute, and reproduce these in any medium, provided the source and authors are credited.

Citations

How to cite this page

To cite this page overall, including any descriptions, FAQs or explanations of the data authored by Our World in Data, please use the following citation:

“Data Page: Share of deaths from violence in non-state societies”. Our World in Data (2026). Data adapted from Various sources. Retrieved from https://archive.ourworldindata.org/20260511-092124/grapher/share-of-violent-deaths-non-state-societies.html [online resource] (archived on May 11, 2026).

How to cite this data

In-line citationIf you have limited space (e.g. in data visualizations), you can use this abbreviated in-line citation:

Various sources (2013) – processed by Our World in Data

Full citation

Various sources (2013) – processed by Our World in Data. “Share of deaths from violence in non-state societies” [dataset]. Various sources, “Ethnographic and archaeological evidence on violent deaths” [original data]. Retrieved May 11, 2026 from https://archive.ourworldindata.org/20260511-092124/grapher/share-of-violent-deaths-non-state-societies.html (archived on May 11, 2026).

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