More than 1,700 people have reportedly died since last week’s devastating earthquakes in Venezuela. 

According to Wikipedia’s historical record of damaging and deadly earthquakes in the country, dating back to 1641, that figure makes the June 24 disaster the third-worst in Venezuela’s recorded history. 

The data was pulled from the United States Geological Survey. 

As you will find later in this data explainer, only two earthquakes have ever killed more people. 

TL;DR

• The June 24, 2026 earthquake’s death toll of over 1,719 makes it the third-deadliest earthquake in Venezuela’s 385-year recorded history.
• The earthquake that struck Sucre state in 2018 has nearly identical seismic power as the recent one in Yaracuy, but the latter has a death toll more than 340 times higher, largely because of where the ground shook. 

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A 151-Year Gap

Between 1875 and 2026, Venezuela recorded 13 separate damaging earthquakes, but none came close to catastrophic scale. 

The deadliest of those, a 1967 earthquake centered on Caracas itself, killed 300 people. 

Most of the other recorded events (in Lara, Carabobo, Trujillo, Carúpano) killed fewer than a dozen people each and were classified as “minor” or “moderate” damage.

The June 24, 2026 doublet  (two earthquakes, magnitude 7.2 and 7.5, striking 39 seconds apart) broke that pattern in a single evening.

Same Power, Different Outcome

The historical record contains a comparison that puts the scale of the tragedy into sharp relief. 

In August 2018, a magnitude 7.3 earthquake struck Sucre state in eastern Venezuela. It killed 5 people and injured 122, classified in the historical record as “moderate damage.”

The 2026 earthquake released comparable seismic energy, yet it has killed more than 1,700 people, a death toll over 340 times higher than the 2018 event for a similar magnitude. 

The difference is not how hard the ground shook but where. 

The 2018 quake struck a less densely populated stretch of eastern Venezuela. The 2026 doublet struck along a corridor running from the rural epicenter near Yaracuy toward the densely built La Guaira coast and into Caracas. 

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A Disaster With No Precedent in the Record

Every other earthquake in the 385-year dataset is recorded with a single magnitude. 

The 2026 entry carries two (7.2 and 7.5) because it was a rare “doublet,” two major earthquakes essentially back to back. 

The Modified Mercalli Intensity scale, which measures how violently an earthquake was actually felt on the ground rather than the energy it released, places 2026 at level IX. 

Only four entries in the entire historical table reach that intensity or higher, and only the 1812 earthquake reaches the maximum level X. 

By how hard the ground shook and by how many people died, 2026 sits in the smallest, most severe category in Venezuela’s earthquake history.

ELI5 (Explain It Like I’m 5)

Venezuela just had its worst earthquake in 151 years. Looking back almost 400 years, only two earthquakes (in 1812 and 1875) were deadlier. 

A similar-strength earthquake in 2018 only killed 5 people because it hit an empty area, but this one hit a crowded coastline near the capital, Caracas, so over 1,700 people died. Rescue teams are still searching the rubble and finding survivors.

Source: 

United States Geological Survey, gathered by Wikipedia