IHS Maritime casualty data records 1944 passenger vessel incidents (over 500gt) in the past 10 years, of which 68 incidents (3.4%) were of sufficient severity to result in the total loss of the vessel.
Altogether 4,784 lives have been lost over this time period with significant accidents such as the tragedy of Al Salam Boccaccio 98 in 2006, Princess of the Stars in 2008 and the Spice Islander 1 in 2011. The last of these capsized and sank in the Indian Ocean and this unfortunate incident alone accounted for 1,573 deaths.