World War II casualties

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World War II casualties

World War II
World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a Participants in World War II, including all of the great powers, organised into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War II and the Axis powers....
was the deadliest military conflict in history. Tens of millions were killed. The tables below give a detailed country-by-country count of human losses.

d War II casualty statistics vary greatly. Estimates of total dead range from 50 million to over 70 million. The sources cited on this page document an estimated death toll in World War II of roughly 72 million, making it the deadliest ever.

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Total dead

World War II casualty statistics vary greatly. Estimates of total dead range from 50 million to over 70 million. The sources cited on this page document an estimated death toll in World War II of roughly 72 million, making it the deadliest ever. Civilians killed totaled around 47 million, including 20 million from war-related disease and famine. Total military dead: about 25 million, including deaths in captivity of about 4 million prisoners of war. Axis

Axis Powers

The Axis powers were those countries that were opposed to the Allies of World War II during World War II. The three major Axis powers - Nazi Germany, Kingdom of Italy , and Empire of Japan - were part of a military alliance on the signing of the Tripartite Pact in September 1940, which officially founded the Axis powers....
dead: approximately 11 million; Allied

Allies of World War II

The Allies of World War II were the countries officially opposed to the Axis powers of World War II during the World War II. Within the ranks of the Allies powers, the British Empire, the Soviet Union, and the United States of America were known as "The Big Three"....
dead: about 61 million.

Recent historical scholarship

Recent historical scholarship has shed new light on the topic. Research in Russia since the collapse of the Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a Constitution of the Soviet Union socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991.The name is a translation of the , romanization of Russian Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated ????, SSSR....
has caused a revision of estimates of Soviet war dead. Estimated USSR losses within postwar borders now stand at 26.6 million. Researchers in post-communist Poland

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe. Poland is bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian Enclave and exclave, to the north....
now put Polish civilian deaths at German hands at between 4.9 and 5.1 million.

The German Army historian

German Armed Forces Military History Research Office

The German Armed Forces Military History Research Office is located at Potsdam, the capital of Brandenburg, Germany....
Dr. Rüdiger Overmans published a study in 2000 that estimated German military dead and missing at 5.3 million. War dead totals on this page for the British Commonwealth

Commonwealth of Nations

The Commonwealth of Nations, also known as the Commonwealth or the British Commonwealth, is an intergovernmental organization of fifty-three independent member states....
are based on research by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission

Commonwealth War Graves Commission

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission is a joint governmental organisation responsible for marking and maintaining the graves of members of the Commonwealth of Nations' military forces that died in the two world wars, to build memorials to those with no known grave, and to keep records of the war dead....
.

Casualties here listed include about 12 million war-related famine deaths in China, Indonesia, French Indochina

French Indochina

French Indochina was the part of the French colonial empire in Indochina in southeast Asia. A federation of the three Vietnamese regions, Tonkin, Annam, and Cochinchina, as well as Cambodia, was formed in 1887....
and India, often omitted from compilations of World War II casualties.

Casualties by country

The casualties of World War II were suffered disproportionately by the various participants. This is especially true regarding civilian casualties

Civilian casualties

Civilian casualties is a military term describing civilian or non-combatant persons killed, injured, or imprisoned by military action. The description of civilian casualties includes any form of military action regardless of whether civilians were targeted directly....
. The following chart gives data on the casualties suffered by each country, along with population information to show the relative impact of losses. Military casualties include battle deaths

Killed in action

Killed in action is a Casualty classification generally used by Military to describe the deaths of their own forces by other hostile forces....
(KIA) and personnel missing in action

Missing in action

Missing in action is a status assigned to armed services personnel who are reported missing during active service. They may have been killed in action or Wounded in action in action, or become a prisoner of war, or may have Desertion....
(MIA), as well as fatalities due to accidents, disease and deaths of prisoners of war in captivity. Civilian casualties

Civilian casualties

Strategic bombing

Strategic bombing is a military strategy used in a total war with the goal of defeating an enemy nation-state by destroying its economic ability to wage war rather than destroying its land or naval forces....
, Nazi persecution

Holocaust victims

While the term "Holocaust victims" generally refers to Jews, the Nazi Germany also persecuted and often killed millions of members of other groups they considered inferior , undesirable or dangerous....
, Japanese war crimes

Japanese war crimes

Japanese war crimes occurred during the period of Japanese expansionism. Some of the incidents have also been described as an Asian Holocaust and Japanese war atrocities....
, population transfers in the Soviet Union

Population transfer in the Soviet Union

Population transfer in the Soviet Union may be classified into the following broad categories: deportations of "anti-Soviet" categories of population, often classified as "enemies of workers", deportations of nationalities, labor force transfer, and organized migrations in opposite directions to fill the ethnic cleansing territories....
, Allied war crimes and deaths due to war related famine and disease. Jewish losses in the Holocaust are listed separately for each nation, since they are known. Compiling or estimating the numbers of deaths

Casualty (person)

A casualty is a person who is the victim of an accident, injury, or Physical trauma. The word casualties is most often used by the news media to describe deaths and injuries resulting from wars or disasters....
caused during wars and other violent conflicts is a controversial subject

Conflict epidemiology

The emerging field of conflict epidemiology offers a more accurate method to measure deaths caused during violent conflicts or wars that can generate more reliable numbers than before to guide decision-makers....
. Historians often put forward many different estimates of the numbers killed during World War II. The distinction between military

Killed in action

Killed in action is a Casualty classification generally used by Military to describe the deaths of their own forces by other hostile forces....
and civilian casualties

Civilian casualties

Collateral damage

Collateral damage is damage that is unintended or incidental to the intended outcome. The term originated in the U.S. military, but it has since expanded into broader use....
is not always clear cut. For nations that suffered huge losses such as the U.S.S.R, China, Poland, Germany and Yugoslavia, our sources can give us only the total estimated population loss

Demographic analysis

Demographic analysis includes the sets of methods that allow us to measure the dimensions and dynamics of populations. These methods have primarily been developed to study human populations, but are extended to a variety of areas where researchers want to know how populations of social actors can change across time through processes of birt...
caused by the war and a rough estimate

Approximation

An approximation is an Accuracy and precision representation of something that is still close enough to be useful. Although approximation is most often applied to numbers, it is also frequently applied to such things as Function , shapes, and physical laws....
of the breakdown of deaths caused by military activity, crimes against humanity and war related famine. The footnotes

World War II casualties

World War II was the deadliest military conflict in history. Tens of millions were killed. The tables below give a detailed country-by-country count of human losses....
give a detailed breakdown of the casualties and their sources.

Human Losses of World War Two by Country

Country	Population 1939	Military deaths	Civilian deaths	Jewish Holocaust deaths	Total deaths	Deaths as % of 1939 population
	1,073,000	28,000		200	28,200	2.63%
	6,998,000	40,500	700		41,200	0.57%
	6,653,000		40,500	65,000	105,500	1.59%
	8,387,000	12,100	49,600	24,400	86,100	1.02%
	40,289,000	1,000	1,000		2,000	0.00%
	6,458,000	22,000	3,000		25,000	0.38%
	16,119,000	22,000	250,000		272,000	1.16%
	11,267,000	45,300			45,300	0.40%
	517,568,000	3,800,000	16,200,000		20,000,000	3.86%
	4,235,000		100		100	0.00%
	15,300,000	25,000	43,000	277,000	345,000	2.25%
	3,795,000	2,100	1,000	100	3,200	0.08%
	1,134,000		50,000	1,000	51,000	4.50%
	17,700,000	5,000	95,000		100,000	0.6%
	3,700,000	95,000	2,000		97,000	2.62%
	41,700,000	217,600	267,000	83,000	567,600	1.35%
	24,600,000		1,000,000		1,000,000	4.07%
	69,623,000	5,533,000	1,540,000	160,000	7,233,000	10.38%
	7,222,000	20,000	220,000	71,300	311,300	4.31%
	9,129,000	300,000	80,000	200,000	580,000	6.35%
	119,000		200		200	0.17%
	378,000,000	87,000	1,500,000		1,587,000	0.42%
	69,435,000		4,000,000		4,000,000	5.76%
	14,340,000	200			200	0.00%
	3,698,000	1,000			1,000	0.03%
	2,960,000		200		200	0.00%
	44,394,000	301,400	145,100	8,000	454,500	1.02%
	71,380,000	2,120,000	580,000		2,700,000	3.78%
	23,400,000		378,000		378,000	1.6%
	1,995,000		147,000	80,000	227,000	11.38%
	2,575,000		212,000	141,000	353,000	13.71%
	295,000		1,300	700	2,000	0.68%
	4,391,000		100,000		100,000	2.28%
	269,000		1,500		1,500	0.56%
	19,320,000		100		100	0.00%
	1,900,000		57,000		57,000	3.00%
	819,000	300			300	0.04%
	8,729,000	21,000	176,000	104,000	301,000	3.44%
	300,000	1,000	100		1,100	0.37%
	1,629,000	11,900			11,900	0.67%
	2,945,000	3,000	5,800	700	9,500	0.32%
	16,000,000	57,000	90,000		147,000	0.92%
	34,849,000	240,000	2,360,000	3,000,000	5,600,000	16.07%
	500,000		55,000		55,000	11.00%
	19,934,000	300,000	64,000	469,000	833,000	4.22%
	728,000		50,000		50,000	6.87%
	10,160,000	11,900			11,900	0.12%
	168,500,000	10,700,000	11,400,000	1,000,000	23,100,000	13.71%
	25,637,000	4,500			4,500	0.02%
	6,341,000	200	2,000		2,200	0.03%
	4,210,000		100		100	0.00%
	15,023,000	5,600	300		5,900	0.04%
	47,760,000	382,700	67,100		449,800	0.94%
	131,028,000	416,800	1,700		418,500	0.32%
	15,400,000	446,000	514,000	67,000	1,027,000	6.67%
Totals	1,961,913,000	25,280,100	41,753,400	5,752,400	72,754,900	3.71%

Human Losses of World War Two by Continent

Continent	Civilian deaths	Military deaths	Total deaths
Asia Asia Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent. It covers 8.6% of the Earth's total surface area and, with over 4 billion people, it contains more than 60% of the world's current human population....	24,203,300	6,093,100	30,296,400
Europe Europe Europe is, conventionally, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural , the Caspian Sea, and by the Caucasus Mountains to the southeast....	23,302,800	18,653,600	41,956,400
Africa Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km? including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area....	95,000	16,900	111,900
Oceania Oceania Oceania is a geography, often geopolitics, region consisting of numerous lands—mostly islands in the Pacific Ocean and vicinity. The term "Oceania" was coined in 1831 by French explorer Jules Dumont d'Urville....	57,700	52,400	110,100
Americas Americas The Americas are the region of the Western hemisphere that consists of the continents of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions....	3,000	464,100	467,100
Totals	47,661,800	25,280,100	72,941,900

Casualties by alliance

Worldwarii Militarydeaths Allies Piechart

Casualties by branch of service

Casualties of World War Two by Branch of Service

Country	Branch of service	Number served	Killed/missing	Wounded	Prisoner of war	Percent killed
Germany Germany Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands....	Army	13,600,000	4,202,000			30.9%
	Air Force	2,500,000	433,000			17.32%
	Navy	1,200,000	138,000			11.5%
	Waffen SS	900,000	314,000			34.9%
	Volkssturm Volkssturm The Volkssturm was a Germany national militia of the last months of World War II. It was founded on Adolf Hitler's orders on October 18, 1944 and conscripted males between the ages of 16 to 60 years who were not already serving in some military unit as part of a German militia.... and Police		231,000
	Soviet citizens in German military service		215,000
	Unidentified by branch of service (see note below)
Japan Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south....	Army	6,300,000	1,526,000	85,600	30,000	24.22%
	Navy	2,100,000	414,900	8,900	10,000	19.76%
Soviet Union Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a Constitution of the Soviet Union socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991.The name is a translation of the , romanization of Russian Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated ????, SSSR.... 1939-40	All branches of service		136,945	205,924
Soviet Union Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a Constitution of the Soviet Union socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991.The name is a translation of the , romanization of Russian Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated ????, SSSR.... 1941-45	All branches of service	34,476,700	8,668,400	14,685,593	4,059,000	25.1%
	Conscripted Reservists (see note below)		1,500,000		1,200,000
	Paramilitary Paramilitary A paramilitary is a force whose function and organisation are similar to those of a professional military force, but which is not regarded as having the same status.... and Soviet partisan units		400,000
British Commonwealth Commonwealth of Nations The Commonwealth of Nations, also known as the Commonwealth or the British Commonwealth, is an intergovernmental organization of fifty-three independent member states....	All branches of service	11,115,000	580,351	475,000	318,000	5.2%
United States United States The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...	Army	11,260,000	318,274	565,861		2.8%
	United States Army Air Forces United States Army Air Forces The United States Army Air Forces was the military aviation arm of the United States of America during and immediately after World War II. The direct precursor to the United States Air Force, its peak size was over 2.4 million men and women in service and nearly 80,000 aircraft in 1944, and 783 domestic bases in December 1943.... (included in Army)	(3,400,000)	(88,119)	(17,360)		2.5%
	Navy	4,183,446	62,614	37,778		1.5%
	Marine Corps	669,100	24,511	68,207		3.66%
	United States Coast Guard United States Coast Guard The United States Coast Guard is a branch of the Military of the United States and one of seven Uniformed services of the United States. In addition to being a military branch at all times, it is unique among the armed forces in that it is also a Admiralty law agency and a Federal government of the United States regulatory agency....	241,093	1,917			0.78%
	United States Merchant Marine United States Merchant Marine The United States Merchant Marine refers to the fleet of United States of America civilian-owned merchant ships, operated by either the government or the private sector, that are engaged in commerce or transportation of goods and services in and out of the navigable waters of the United States....	243,000	9,521	12,000		3.9%
	Unidentified by branch of service .				130,201

World War II casualties

Total dead

Recent historical scholarship

Casualties by country

Casualties by alliance

Casualties by branch of service

Footnotes

See also

Main articles

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