Approximately 230,000 people died in the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. The disaster followed a magnitude 9.1–9.3 undersea earthquake off northern Sumatra on 26 December 2004. The resulting waves crossed the Indian Ocean and struck Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Thailand, the Maldives, and parts of East Africa.
The exact total varies because thousands of people were reported missing, records differed between countries, and some victims were never identified. A widely cited estimate is 227,898 deaths, while other official counts place the total near 230,000. That makes it the deadliest tsunami in recorded history.
Indonesia suffered the greatest loss of life, especially Aceh province on Sumatra, where coastal communities were devastated within minutes. The tsunami also killed many people far from the earthquake, including tourists in Thailand and residents along Sri Lanka's and India's coastlines.
The figure is sometimes confused with the number of people displaced, which was around 1.7 million. The death toll refers to lives lost, not the much larger number of survivors whose homes and livelihoods were destroyed.