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More than 60,000 people have been killed since Syria's uprising began in March 2011, the UN has said.
A study commissioned by UN human rights commissioner Navi Pillay collated data from seven different sources, and concluded that there had been 59,648 deaths until November 2012.
Ms Pillay said the figure would now have risen above 60,000 and described the bloodshed as "truly shocking".
Syrian opposition groups had previously estimated 45,000 people killed.
The study was released hours after a petrol station near Damascus was hit by a missile from a government warplane.
The attack apparently sparked a huge explosion in which up to 70 people died, according to activists, in one of the deadliest incidents of the uprising.
'Minimum' number
The UN-commissioned report, entitled Preliminary Statistical Analysis of Documentation of Killings in Syria, took data from sources including the government and opposition groups.
The authors, from the Benetech research group, looked at 147,349 reports of deaths from all seven of its sources.
They cross-referenced the reports and removed duplicates, and also counted only those accounts that provided the first and last name of the victim, and the date and location of death.
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Syria's conflict * Gender: 76.1% of victims are male, 7.5% female, 16.4% unknown * Location: Homs province is deadliest location; followed by Rural Damascus, Idlib and Aleppo * Time: August 2012 was deadliest month - up to 6,000 deaths recorded
Source: Preliminary Statistical Analysis of Documentation of Killings in Syria
After this process, they arrived at the figure of 59,648.
However, they warned that an unknown number of killings had not been documented by any of their sources.
"The statistics presented in this report should be considered minimum bounds," the report said.
Only four of the sources used covered the entire period.
Three are activist groups with links to the opposition:
A study commissioned by UN human rights commissioner Navi Pillay collated data from seven different sources, and concluded that there had been 59,648 deaths until November 2012.
Ms Pillay said the figure would now have risen above 60,000 and described the bloodshed as "truly shocking".
Syrian opposition groups had previously estimated 45,000 people killed.
The study was released hours after a petrol station near Damascus was hit by a missile from a government warplane.
The attack apparently sparked a huge explosion in which up to 70 people died, according to activists, in one of the deadliest incidents of the uprising.
'Minimum' number
The UN-commissioned report, entitled Preliminary Statistical Analysis of Documentation of Killings in Syria, took data from sources including the government and opposition groups.
The authors, from the Benetech research group, looked at 147,349 reports of deaths from all seven of its sources.
They cross-referenced the reports and removed duplicates, and also counted only those accounts that provided the first and last name of the victim, and the date and location of death.
Continue reading the main story
Syria's conflict * Gender: 76.1% of victims are male, 7.5% female, 16.4% unknown * Location: Homs province is deadliest location; followed by Rural Damascus, Idlib and Aleppo * Time: August 2012 was deadliest month - up to 6,000 deaths recorded
Source: Preliminary Statistical Analysis of Documentation of Killings in Syria
After this process, they arrived at the figure of 59,648.
However, they warned that an unknown number of killings had not been documented by any of their sources.
"The statistics presented in this report should be considered minimum bounds," the report said.
Only four of the sources used covered the entire period.
Three are activist groups with links to the opposition: