Why is it difficult to calculate the number of deaths caused by a famine?

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Great Famine — famine Starving Irish people raiding a government potato store; drawing from the *Illustrated London News*, June 1842.

Calculating the number of deaths caused by a famine is inherently difficult because, contrary to common perception, only a small proportion of fatalities are the direct result of starvation.1

The primary challenge in establishing accurate mortality statistics is that the leading cause of death during and after a famine is disease. Outbreaks of illnesses such as cholera, malaria, and smallpox often claim more lives than hunger itself. Furthermore, these health crises can persist long after the famine has officially ended, making it complex to attribute specific deaths to the initial event.1

Additionally, political factors often obscure data. In authoritarian regimes, censorship can prevent the accurate reporting of the scale of a tragedy, leading to long-standing disputes over mortality statistics even decades after the event.1