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
