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Classification of casualties. Compiling or estimating the numbers of deaths and wounded caused during wars and other violent conflicts is a controversial subject.Historians often put forward many different estimates of the numbers killed and wounded during World War II.
Find out the number of military and civilian deaths by country and by battle in World War II, based on various sources and estimates. Compare the casualty estimates for different countries and regions, and learn about the causes and consequences of the war.
CountryMilitary DeathsTotal Civilian And Military DeathsAlbania30,00030,200Australia39,80040,500Austria261,000384,700Belgium12,10086,100A German soldier lying dead outside a pillbox above Utah Beach, Les Dunes de Madeleine, France, June 6, 1944. casualties of World War II, World War II, the deadliest and most destructive war in human history, claimed between 40 and 50 million lives, displaced tens of millions of people, and cost more than $1 trillion to prosecute.
- 10 Countries with The Highest World War II Fatalities
- Soviet Union - 24,000,000
- China - 19,500,000
- Germany - 7,700,000
- Poland - 5,600,000
- Dutch East Indies (Indonesia) - 3,500,000
- Japan - 2,850,000
- India - 2,087,000
- French Indochina (Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam) - 1,250,000
- Yugoslavia - 1,000,000
On June 22, 1941, Germany invaded the Soviet Union. Known as Operation Barbarossa, this campaign saw the German army split into three main groups. Army Group North attacked Leningrad, Army Group Center attacked Moscow, and Army Group South attacked Ukraine, followed by the Caucasus. All of these assaults saw enormous levels of death and destruction...
In 1931, the Japanese Empire invaded Manchuria, a region in northern China. Following a clash at the Marco Polo Bridge in July 1937, Japan then launched a full-scale invasion of the rest of the country. This conflict, known as the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945), marked the beginning of World War Two's Pacific theater. It also saw numerous atr...
Despite being the main aggressor in the European war, Germany still suffered an immense number of casualties. For instance, in July 1943, the Allies launched a strategic bombing campaign over the northern city of Hamburg, resulting in 37,000 civilians being killed and nearly 200,000 being injured. In February 1945, another bombing over Dresden led ...
Germany and the Soviet Union invaded Poland in September 1939. While significant numbers of Poles were killed during these initial operations, the vast majority died during the joint occupation. For example, following the 1944 Warsaw Uprising, which was led by the Polish resistance, at least 150,000 civilians were murdered by the Nazis in retaliati...
Allied colonies also suffered immense losses. Indeed, after the Japanese occupied China, they turned their attention south, invading Indonesia (then known as the Dutch East Indiessince it was a Dutch colony) on December 8, 1941. This followed the German invasion of the Netherlands the previous year. The Dutch East Indies were a key target due to th...
Much like Germany, despite having started the war, Japanalso suffered many casualties. For instance, from March 9 to March 10, 1945, American aircraft dropped incendiary bombs over Tokyo. Since most of the buildings were made of wood, the city essentially burned to the ground. Conservative estimates assert that 80 000 Japanese civilians were killed...
India declared war on Germany in September 1939. Soldiers from the then-British colony fought in Europe, North Africa, and Southeast Asia, resulting in about 87,000 deaths. Millions of civilians also died due to war-related factors. For instance, from 1940 to 1943, the region of Bengal in Western India experienced a deadly faminein which millions l...
In 1939, Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam were French colonies organized under a single administrative unit called French Indochina. However, following the fall of France in 1940, the region came under the control of Nazi collaborators. The German puppet state, Vichy France, thus gave significant concessions to Japan. By July 1941, the Japanese Empire c...
The Kingdom of Yugoslavia was invaded by Axis forces on April 6, 1941, after which it was partitioned between Germany, Italy, Hungary, and Bulgaria. Yugoslav communists, organized under the banner of the National Liberation Army (also known as the Yugoslav Partisans), then launched a guerilla war against the Axis puppet regime. At the beginning of ...
World War II casualties 1 Figures for deaths, insofar as possible, exclude those who died of natural causes or were suicides. 2 As far as possible the figures in this column exclude those who died in captivity. 3 Figures for all Commonwealth nations include those still missing in 1946, some of whom may be presumed dead.
CountryKilled, Died Of Wounds, Or In Prison 1WoundedPrisoners Or Missing 2Belgium12,000——Brazil9434,222—British Commonwealth373,372475,047251,724 3Australia23,36539,80332,393The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. Estimates of the total number of people killed during World War II have ranged from 35,000,000 to 60,000,000—a significant span, because statistics about the war’s casualties are inexact. The Soviet Union and China are believed to have suffered the most total casualties, while an estimated 5,800,000 ...
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15,000,000. Battle Wounded. 25,000,000. Civilian Deaths. 45,000,000. *World-wide casualty estimates vary widely in several sources. The number of civilian deaths in China alone might well be more than 50,000,000. These are the best estimates for how many lives were lost during World War II.
