Officially, the calamity—the huge death toll of which is frequently attributed by critics to officials who customarily waved through non-quake-proofed housing in a known earthquake zone—took the lives of around 51,000 across 11 Turkish provinces.

Between 1998-2017, earthquakes caused nearly 750 000 deaths globally, more than half of all deaths related to natural disasters. More than 125 million people were affected by earthquakes during this time period, meaning they were injured, made homeless, displaced or evacuated during the emergency phase of the disaster.