We construct unconditionally several families of number fields with the largest possible class numbers. They are number fields of degree 4 and 5 whose Galois closures have the Galois group ${{A}_{4}},\,{{S}_{4}}$, and ${{S}_{5}}$. We first construct families of number fields with smallest regulators, and by using the strong Artin conjecture and applying the zero density result of Kowalski–Michel, we choose subfamilies of $L$-functions that are zero-free close to 1. For these subfamilies, the $L$-functions have the extremal value at $s\,=\,1$, and by the class number formula, we obtain the extreme class numbers.

Let $K$ be a number field of degree $n$, and let $d_K$ be its discriminant. Then, under the Artin conjecture, the generalized Riemann hypothesis and a certain zero-density hypothesis, we show that the upper and lower bounds of the logarithmic derivatives of Artin $L$-functions attached to $K$ at $s=1$ are $\log \log |d_K|$ and $-(n-1) \log \log |d_K|$, respectively. Unconditionally, we show that there are infinitely many number fields with the extreme logarithmic derivatives; they are families of number fields whose Galois closures have the Galois group $C_n$ for $n=2,3,4,6$, $D_n$ for $n=3,4,5$, $S_4$ or $A_5$.