Abortion Was the Leading Cause of Death Worldwide in 2025, Killing 73 Million People

More human beings died from abortions than any other cause of death in 2025.

A heartbreaking reminder about the prevalence of abortion, statistics compiled by Worldometers indicate that there were over 73 million abortions world-wide in 2025. The independent site collects data from governments and other organizations and then reports the data each day, along with estimates and projections, based on those numbers.

Worldometers bases its daily abortion figures on a May 2024 fact sheet from the World Health Organization, which estimates a tragically high number of babies killed in abortions.

“Around 73 million induced abortions take place worldwide each year,” the WHO says.

Abortion is also the leading cause of death in the United States.

“In the USA, where nearly 30% of pregnancies are unintended and 40% of these are terminated by abortion, there are between 1,500 to 2,500 abortions per day. Nearly 20% of all pregnancies in the USA (excluding miscarriages) end in abortion. Guttmacher Institute reports 930,160 abortions performed in 2020 in the United States, with a rate of 14.4 per 1,000 women,” Worldometers reports.

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When contrasting the abortion numbers to other causes of death, including cancer, HIV/AIDS, traffic accidents and suicide, abortions far outnumbered every other cause. By contrast, an estimated 10 million people died from cancer in 2025, 6.2 million from smoking, 17 million from disease, and 2 million died of HIV/AIDS. Deaths by malaria and alcohol are also recorded.

With 67.1 million people dying last year from a cause other than abortion and 140 million people dying in total from abortion and all causes, that means abortions accounted for almost 52% of all deaths around the world last year.

Thw WHO figure is based on comprehensive modeling of data from 2015–2019 (extended in recent WHO fact sheets as of 2025), accounting for both legal and illegal abortions.

This 73 million estimate reflects about 39 abortions per 1,000 women aged 15–49 globally (with uncertainty intervals around 34–46). It corresponds to 61% of unintended pregnancies (121 million annually) ending in abortion. Older estimates (e.g., 56 million babies killed in abortions for 2010–2014) have been updated upward due to population growth and improved data on usage of the dangerous abortion pill as well as illegal abortion estimates.

Unborn babies are not recognized as human beings even though biology indicates that they are unique, living human beings from the moment of conception and they die brutal, violent deaths in abortions.

The abortion number is incomprehensible, but each of those 73 million abortions worldwide in 2025 represents a living human being whose life was violently destroyed in their mother’s womb. Each unborn baby already had their own unique DNA, making them distinct from their mother. That DNA indicated if the child was a boy or girl, their eye and hair color, their height, possible genetic disorders and other disabilities, and much more. In most cases, the unborn babies’ hearts are beating when they are aborted, too.

In America, just under 1 million babies are aborted every year. Though abortion rates have been dropping in the past decade, abortion remains the leading cause of death in the United States as well.

An estimated 66 million unborn babies have been killed in abortions in the U.S. since Roe v. Wade in 1973. In January, pro-life advocates will gather for the annual March for Life in Washington, D.C. to remember the anniversary of that infamous decision and call for restored protections for the unborn.

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