Casualties

Combined 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 62 to 78 million, making it the deadliest war ever. Civilians killed totaled from 40 to 52 million, including 13 to 20 million from war-related disease and famine. Total military dead range from 22 to 25 million, including deaths in captivity of about 5 million prisoners of war.

Losses by Country

Some nations in World War II suffered disproportionally more casualties than others. This is especially true regarding civilian casualties. The following chart gives data on the number of dead for each country, along with population information to show the relative impact of losses. Military figures include battle deaths (KIA) and personnel missing in action (MIA), as well as fatalities due to accidents, disease and deaths of prisoners of war in captivity. Civilian casualties include deaths caused by strategic bombing, Nazi persecution, Japanese war crimes, population transfers in the Soviet Union, 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 caused during wars and other violent conflicts is a controversial subject. Historians often put forward many different estimates of the numbers killed during World War II. The distinction between military and civilian casualties caused directly by warfare and collateral damage 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 caused by the war and a rough estimate of the breakdown of deaths caused by military activity, crimes against humanity and war related famine. The footnotes give a detailed breakdown of the casualties and their sources, including data on the number of wounded where reliable sources are available.

Country Military deaths Civilian deaths Jewish Holocaust deaths Total
Albania 30,000   200 30,200
Australia 40,500 700   41,200
Austria 261,000 58,700 65,000 384,700
Belgium 12,100 49,600 24,400 86,100
Brazil 1,000 1,000   2,000
Bulgaria 22,000 3,000   25,000
Burma 22,000 250,000   272,000
Canada 45,300     45,300
China 3-4,000,000 7-16,000,000   10-20,000,000
Cuba   100   100
Czechoslovakia 25,000 43,000 277,000 345,000
Denmark 2,100 1,000 100 3,200
Dutch East Indies   3–4,030,000   3–4,030,000
Estonia*   50,000 1000 51,000
Ethiopia 5,000 95,000   100,000
Finland 95,000 2,000   97,000
France 217,600 267,000 83,000 567,600
French Indochina   1-1,500,000   1-1,500,000

Germany

5,533,000
940,000–
2,700,000

160,000
6,633,000–
8,393,000
Greece 35,100 700,500 71,300 806,900
Hungary 300,000 80,000 200,000 580,000
Iceland   200   200

India

87,000
1,500,000-
2,500,000

200,000

580,000
Iran 200     200
Iraq 1,000     1,000
Ireland   200   200
Italy 301,400 145,100 8,000 454,500
Japan 2,120,000 580,000   2,700,000

Korea

 
378,000–
533,000

 
378,000–
533,000
Latvia*   147,000 80,000 227,000
Lithuania*   212,000 141,000 353,000
Luxembourg   1,300 700 2,000
Malaya   100,000   100,000
Malta   1,500   1,500
Mexico   100   100
Mongolia 300     300
Nauru   500   500
Netherlands 21,000 176,000 104,000 301,000
Newfoundland 1,000 100   1,100
New Zealand 11,900     11,900
Norway 3,000 5,800 700 9,500
Papua &
New Guinea

 

15,000

 

15,000

Philippines

57,000
500,000-
1,000,000

 
557,000–
1,057,000

Poland*

240,000
2,380,000–
2,580,000

3,000,000
5,620,000–
5,820,000
Portuguese Timor   40-70,000   40-70,000
Romania* 300,000 64,000 469,000 833,000
Singapore   50,000   50,000
South Africa 11,900     11,900
South Pacific Mandate
 

57,000

 

57,000

Soviet Union
8,800,000–
10,700,000
12,254,000–
14,154,000

1,000,000

23,954,000
Spain 4,500     4,500
Sweden 200 2,000   2,200
Switzerland   100   100
Thailand 5,600 300   5,900
United Kingdom 382,700 67,100   449,800
United States 416,800 1,700   418,500
Yugoslavia 446,000 514,000 67,000 1,027,000

Total
22,597,200–
25,497,500
34,664,600–
46,909,600

5,752,400
62,394,200–
78,339,200

* 1939 borders



Notes

Recent historical scholarship has shed new insight into the topic of Second World War casualties. Research in Russia since the collapse of the Soviet Union has caused a revision of estimates of Soviet war dead. Estimated USSR losses within postwar borders now stand at 26.6 million. In August 2009 the Polish Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) researchers estimated Poland’s dead at between 5.6 and 5.8 million.

The German Army historian 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 are based on the research of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

Casualties listed here include about 4 to 12 million war-related famine deaths in China, Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines, India, and Bangladesh that are often omitted from other compilations of World War II casualties.

Military Deaths: Losses include deaths of regular military forces from combat as well as non combat causes. Whenever possible the losses of Irregular military, Partisan (military) and Paramilitary forces have been included with military losses. The deaths of prisoners of war-POW in captivity and personnel missing in action are also included with military losses. The armed forces of the various nations are treated as single entities, for example deaths of Americans serving in the RAF are included with the UK; Austrians, Soviets and French in the Wehrmacht are included with German military losses, the exception being China because some factions supported the Japanese.

* Figures rounded to the nearest hundredth place.

Sources

Casualties from World War II, The National Archives

WW2 Casualties, Wikipedia.org

World War Two Nation by Nation, J. Lee Ready, Published by Arms and Armour, ISBN 1-85409-290-1

Haywood: Atlas of World History (1997)

Keegan, J., The Second World War (1989)

Messenger, The Chronological Atlas of World War Two (1989)

The Times Concise Atlas of World History (1988)

G. I. Kirosheev. Soviet Casualties and Combat Losses. Greenhill 1997. ISBN 1-85367-280-7

Ellis, John. World War II - A statistical survey Facts on File 1993. ISBN 0-8160-2971-7