About the Iraq Body Count project

Iraq Body Count (IBC) records the violent civilian deaths that have resulted from the 2003 military intervention in Iraq. Its public database includes deaths caused by US-led coalition forces and paramilitary or criminal attacks by others.

IBC’s documentary evidence is drawn from crosschecked media reports of violent events leading to the death of civilians, or of bodies being found, and is supplemented by the careful review and integration of hospital, morgue, NGO and official figures.

Systematically extracted details about deadly incidents and the individuals killed in them are stored with every entry in the database. The minimum details always extracted are the number killed, where, and when.

Confusion about the numbers produced by the project can be avoided by bearing in mind that:

• IBC’s figures are not ‘estimates’ but a record of actual, documented deaths.
• IBC records solely violent deaths.
• IBC records solely civilian (strictly, ‘non-combatant’) deaths.
• IBC’s figures are constantly updated and revised as new data comes in, and frequent consultation is advised.

IBC builds on innovative uses of new technologies without which this citizens’ initiative would be impossible. The project was founded in January 2003 by volunteers from the UK and USA who felt a responsibility to ensure that the human consequences of military intervention in Iraq were not neglected.

Finally, IBC could not exist without the journalists and media support workers, Iraqi and international, who labour to report war’s daily carnage at the risk, and all too often the cost, of their health or their lives.

For more on IBC’s principles and objectives see the Rationale.

For a more detailed description of IBC’s working methodology and inclusion criteria, see the Methods section.

For technical, research and media contacts, conditions of use, as well as a listing of IBC personnel, see Contacts/Staff.