Estimates for the total death count of the Second World War generally range somewhere between 70 and 85 million people. The Soviet Union suffered the highest number of fatalities of any single nation, with estimates mostly falling between 22 and 27 million deaths. China then suffered the second greatest, at around 20 million, although these figures are less certain and often overlap with the Chinese Civil War. Over 80 percent of all deaths were of those from Allied countries, and the majority of these were civilians. In contrast, 15 to 20 percent were among the Axis powers, and the majority of these were military deaths, as shown in the death ratios of Germany and Japan. Civilian deaths and atrocities It is believed that 60 to 67 percent of all deaths were civilian fatalities, largely resulting from war-related famine or disease, and war crimes or atrocities. Systematic genocide, extermination campaigns, and forced labor, particularly by the Germans, Japanese, and Soviets, led to the deaths of millions. In this regard, Nazi activities alone resulted in 17 million deaths, including six million Jews in what is now known as The Holocaust. Not only was the scale of the conflict larger than any that had come before, but the nature of and reasoning behind this loss make the Second World War stand out as one of the most devastating and cruelest conflicts in history. Problems with these statistics Although the war is considered by many to be the defining event of the 20th century, exact figures for death tolls have proven impossible to determine, for a variety of reasons. Countries such as the U.S. have fairly consistent estimates due to preserved military records and comparatively few civilian casualties, although figures still vary by source. For most of Europe, records are less accurate. Border fluctuations and the upheaval of the interwar period mean that pre-war records were already poor or non-existent for many regions. The rapid and chaotic nature of the war then meant that deaths could not be accurately recorded at the time, and mass displacement or forced relocation resulted in the deaths of many civilians outside of their homeland, which makes country-specific figures more difficult to find. Early estimates of the war’s fatalities were also taken at face value and formed the basis of many historical works; these were often very inaccurate, but the validity of the source means that the figures continue to be cited today, despite contrary evidence.

In comparison to Europe, estimate ranges are often greater across Asia, where populations were larger but pre-war data was in short supply. Many of the Asian countries with high death tolls were European colonies, and the actions of authorities in the metropoles, such as the diversion of resources from Asia to Europe, led to millions of deaths through famine and disease. Additionally, over one million African soldiers were drafted into Europe’s armies during the war, yet individual statistics are unavailable for most of these colonies or successor states (notably Algeria and Libya). Thousands of Asian and African military deaths went unrecorded or are included with European or Japanese figures, and there are no reliable figures for deaths of millions from countries across North Africa or East Asia. Additionally, many concentration camp records were destroyed, and such records in Africa and Asia were even sparser than in Europe. While the Second World War is one of the most studied academic topics of the past century, it is unlikely that we will ever have a clear number for the lives lost in the conflict.

The First World War saw the mobilization of more than 65 million soldiers, and the deaths of almost 15 million soldiers and civilians combined. Approximately 8.8 million of these deaths were of military personnel, while six million civilians died as a direct result of the war; mostly through hunger, disease and genocide. The German army suffered the highest number of military losses, totaling at more than two million men. Turkey had the highest civilian death count, largely due to the mass extermination of Armenians, as well as Greeks and Assyrians. Varying estimates suggest that Russia may have suffered the highest number of military and total fatalities in the First World War. However, this is complicated by the subsequent Russian Civil War and Russia's total specific to the First World War remains unclear to this day.

Proportional deaths In 1914, Central and Eastern Europe was largely divided between the empires of Austria-Hungary, Germany and Russia, while the smaller Balkan states had only emerged in prior decades with the decline of the Ottoman Empire. For these reasons, the major powers in the east were able to mobilize millions of men from across their territories, as Britain and France did with their own overseas colonies, and were able to utilize their superior manpower to rotate and replace soldiers, whereas smaller nations did not have this luxury. For example, total military losses for Romania and Serbia are around 12 percent of Germany's total military losses; however, as a share of their total mobilized forces these countries lost roughly 33 percent of their armies, compared to Germany's 15 percent mortality rate. The average mortality rate of all deployed soldiers in the war was around 14 percent.

Unclarity in the totals Despite ending over a century ago, the total number of deaths resulting from the First World War remains unclear. The impact of the Influenza pandemic of 1918, as well as various classifications of when or why fatalities occurred, has resulted in varying totals with differences ranging in the millions. Parallel conflicts, particularly the Russian Civil War, have also made it extremely difficult to define which conflicts the fatalities should be attributed to. Since 2012, the totals given by Hirschfeld et al in Brill's Encyclopedia of the First World War have been viewed by many in the historical community as the most reliable figures on the subject.

Children are one of the groups suffering the most during armed conflicts. Looking at the number of children killed and maimed in conflicts, the number **** somewhat after the peak in 2014. In 2022, more than ***** children were confirmed killed or maimed in conflicts worldwide.

Despite the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war in 2022, and the Israel-Hamas war since October 2023, which have come to dominate international news, the overall number of conflicts worldwide decreased since 2013. In 2023, there were *** instances of violent crisis recorded globally, compared to ** wars and ** limited wars. What is a conflict? According to the new conflict methodology in Heidelberg, the HIIK understands a political conflict as a positional difference regarding values relevant to a society between at least two involved actors, for example ethnic or religious groups or governments. The conflict must be carried out using observable and interrelated conflict means that lie beyond established regulatory procedures and threaten a core state function or the order of international law, or hold out the prospect to do so. Regarding the intensity of a political conflict the HIIK distinguishes five levels of intensity: dispute, non-violent crises, violent crises, limited war, and war. These levels of conflict are distinguished by the level of physical violence applied in the course of conflict. The last three are violent conflicts, whereas a dispute is a political conflict carried out completely without resorting to violence; in a non-violent crisis, one of the actors is threatened with violence. Violent conflicts are measured by the instruments for the use of force (use of weapons and use of personnel) and the consequences of the use of force (casualties, refugees and demolition). In 2023, the highest number of wars was recorded in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Central African Republic CF: Battle-Related Deaths: Number of People data was reported at 261.000 Person in 2023. This records a decrease from the previous number of 675.000 Person for 2022. Central African Republic CF: Battle-Related Deaths: Number of People data is updated yearly, averaging 88.000 Person from Dec 2001 (Median) to 2023, with 17 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 906.000 Person in 2021 and a record low of 27.000 Person in 2015. Central African Republic CF: Battle-Related Deaths: Number of People data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Central African Republic – Table CF.World Bank.WDI: Population and Urbanization Statistics. Battle-related deaths are deaths in battle-related conflicts between warring parties in the conflict dyad (two conflict units that are parties to a conflict). Typically, battle-related deaths occur in warfare involving the armed forces of the warring parties. This includes traditional battlefield fighting, guerrilla activities, and all kinds of bombardments of military units, cities, and villages, etc. The targets are usually the military itself and its installations or state institutions and state representatives, but there is often substantial collateral damage in the form of civilians being killed in crossfire, in indiscriminate bombings, etc. All deaths--military as well as civilian--incurred in such situations, are counted as battle-related deaths.;Uppsala Conflict Data Program, http://www.pcr.uu.se/research/ucdp/.;Sum;

Children is one of the groups suffering the most during armed conflicts. Looking at the number of children killed and maimed in conflicts compared to the total number of battle deaths in some of the most conflict ridden countries worldwide, it becomes clear that the number of children killed compared to battle deaths vary significantly. While there were only 53 children registered among the 2,882 battle deaths in Nigeria, close to 1,000 of the 1,545 battle deaths in Syria were children. However, this only shows a part of the picture, as sexual violence, hunger and starvation, children fleeing, child soldiers and other types of sufferings are not taken into account here.

Afghanistan Battle-Related Deaths: Number of People data was reported at 230.000 Person in 2024. This records a decrease from the previous number of 917.000 Person for 2023. Afghanistan Battle-Related Deaths: Number of People data is updated yearly, averaging 5,552.000 Person from Mar 1990 (Median) to 2024, with 35 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 35,787.000 Person in 2022 and a record low of 230.000 Person in 2024. Afghanistan Battle-Related Deaths: Number of People data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Afghanistan – Table AF.World Bank.WDI: Population and Urbanization Statistics. Battle-related deaths are deaths in battle-related conflicts between warring parties in the conflict dyad (two conflict units that are parties to a conflict). Typically, battle-related deaths occur in warfare involving the armed forces of the warring parties. This includes traditional battlefield fighting, guerrilla activities, and all kinds of bombardments of military units, cities, and villages, etc. The targets are usually the military itself and its installations or state institutions and state representatives, but there is often substantial collateral damage in the form of civilians being killed in crossfire, in indiscriminate bombings, etc. All deaths--military as well as civilian--incurred in such situations, are counted as battle-related deaths.;Uppsala Conflict Data Program, http://www.pcr.uu.se/research/ucdp/.;Sum;

It is estimated that the Second World War was responsible for the deaths of approximately 3.76 percent of the world's population between 1939 and 1945. In 2022, where the world's population reached eight billion, this would be equal to the death of around 300 million people.

The region that experienced the largest loss of life relative to its population was the South Seas Mandate - these were former-German territories given to the Empire of Japan through the Treaty of Versailles following WWI, and they make up much of the present-day countries of the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, the Northern Mariana Islands (U.S. territory), and Palau. Due to the location and strategic importance of these islands, they were used by the Japanese as launching pads for their attacks on Pearl Harbor and in the South Pacific, while they were also taken as part of the Allies' island-hopping strategy in their counteroffensive against Japan. This came at a heavy cost for the local populations, a large share of whom were Japanese settlers who had moved there in the 1920s and 1930s. Exact figures for both pre-war populations and wartime losses fluctuate by source, however civilian losses in these islands were extremely high as the Japanese defenses resorted to more extreme measures in the war's final phase.

No. of Deaths: Caused by: Legal Intervention & Operations of War & Aftermath data was reported at 4.000 Person in Sep 2024. This records an increase from the previous number of 2.000 Person for Mar 2024. No. of Deaths: Caused by: Legal Intervention & Operations of War & Aftermath data is updated quarterly, averaging 6.000 Person from Mar 2017 (Median) to Sep 2024, with 21 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 31.000 Person in Jun 2018 and a record low of 1.000 Person in Jun 2020. No. of Deaths: Caused by: Legal Intervention & Operations of War & Aftermath data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by National Administrative Department of Statistics. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Colombia – Table CO.G012: Number of Deaths: Cause of Death.

Actors, their Civilian Targeting Index (CTI), and their Total Associated Fatalities during 2002–2007. Separate file, for online supporting information. (DOC)

The deadliest state-based conflict in Africa in 2023 was the civil war in Sudan between the Sudanese government and the rebel group Rapid Support Forces (RSF). It is estimated that more than 5,000 people were killed in the conflict that year. By comparison, nearly 3,900 were killed in Somalia, Kenya, and Ethiopia in the conflict between the Government of Somalia and Al-Shabaab. The war in Sudan has seen millions of people displaced, and many face hunger and starvation. Rising terrorism in Africa In recent years, some African states have been suffering from increasing terrorist activity due to a weak state and a poor security apparatus. For instance, Burkina Faso and Mali made up two of the four countries ranked highest on the global terrorism index in 2023, and in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the number of terrorist attacks rose from less than 200 in 2018 to around 900 in 2021. Many of the state-based conflicts on the continent are between a state and a terrorist organization. Increasing number of coups The poor state infrastructure in some African states has led to a surge in coup d'états on the continent since 2020, especially in Western Africa, where there have been successful coups in Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Guinea, and Gabon in recent years. Worldwide, Thailand is the country with the highest number of successful coup d'états since the Second World War.

BackgroundOf the 4 million neonatal deaths worldwide yearly, 98% occur in low and middle-income countries. Effective resuscitation reduces mortality and morbidity but long-term outcomes in resource-limited settings are poorly described. This study reports on newborn neurological outcomes following resuscitation at birth in a resource-limited setting where intensive newborn care including intubation is unavailable.MethodsRetrospective analysis of births records from 2008 to 2015 at Shoklo Malaria Research Unit (SMRU) on the Thailand-Myanmar border.FindingsFrom 21,225 newbonrs delivered, 15,073 (71%) met the inclusion criteria (liveborn, singleton, ≥28 weeks’ gestation, delivered in SMRU). Neonatal resuscitation was performed in 460 (3%; 422 basic, 38 advanced) cases. Overall early neonatal mortality was 6.6 deaths per 1000 live births (95% CI 5.40–8.06). Newborns receiving basic and advanced resuscitation presented an adjusted rate for death of 1.30 (95%CI 0.66–2.55; p = 0.442), and 6.32 (95%CI 3.01–13.26; p

Data gathered from countries across the globe revealed that 54 journalists were killed worldwide in 2024. Journalism may not be considered the most dangerous profession in the world, but the risks for those entering into certain segments of the industry are clear. After a peak in 2012, when 147 journalists were killed, the numbers thankfully declined, with 2021 recording the lowest number of journalist deaths since 2003. The perils of being a journalist: global insights Journalist death statistics by region show that six journalist killings occurred in Iraq in 2020 along with four in Pakistan and four in India, some of which were sadly particularly brutal. The most dangerous country in the world for journalists is Mexico, where eight journalists were killed in 2020. Journalists in Mexico are frequently placed under surveillance, threatened, and fatally punished for attempting to expose or publicize political corruption, and despite the country being war-free, an average of eight to ten journalists are murdered in the country each year. Journalists arrested and imprisoned Journalists are at risk of being captured and detained as punishment for criticizing a political regime or a religious ideology, persecuted for insulting those in positions of power, hunted down for images they published, and shot dead simply because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. The yearly number of imprisoned journalists regularly surpasses 250 worldwide, and arrests and kidnappings are also common. Between 2014 and 2019, almost 1,500 journalists were arrested and close to 400 were kidnapped, highlighting the harsh reality for many media workers around the world.

The Holocaust was the systematic extermination of Europe's Jewish population in the Second World War, during which time, up to six million Jews were murdered as part of Nazi Germany's "Final Solution to the Jewish Question". In the context of the Second World War, the term "Holocaust" is traditionally used to reference the genocide of Europe's Jews, although this coincided with the Nazi regime's genocide and ethnic cleansing of an additional eleven million people deemed "undesirable" due to their ethnicity, beliefs, disability or sexuality (among others). During the Holocaust, Poland's Jewish population suffered the largest number of fatalities, with approximately three million deaths. Additionally, at least one million Jews were murdered in the Soviet Union, while Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands and Yugoslavia also lost the majority of their respective pre-war Jewish populations. The Holocaust in Poland In the interwar period, Europe's Jewish population was concentrated in the east, with roughly one third living in Poland; this can be traced back to the Middle Ages, when thousands of Jews flocked to Eastern Europe to escape persecution. At the outbreak of the Second World War, it is estimated that there were 3.4 million Jews living in Poland, which was approximately ten percent of the total population. Following the German invasion of Poland, Nazi authorities then segregated Jews in ghettos across most large towns and cities, and expanded their network of concentration camps throughout the country. In the ghettos, civilians were deprived of food, and hundreds of thousands died due to disease and starvation; while prison labor was implemented under extreme conditions in concentration camps to fuel the German war effort. In Poland, six extermination camps were also operational between December 1941 and January 1945, which saw the mass extermination of approximately 2.7 million people over the next three years (including many non-Poles, imported from other regions of Europe). While concentration camps housed prisoners of all backgrounds, extermination camps were purpose-built for the elimination of the Jewish race, and over 90% of their victims were Jewish. The majority of the victims in these extermination camps were executed by poison gas, although disease, starvation and overworking were also common causes of death. In addition to the camps and ghettos, SS death squads (Einsatzgruppen) and local collaborators also committed widespread atrocities across Eastern Europe. While the majority of these atrocities took place in the Balkan, Baltic and Soviet regions, they were still prevalent in Poland (particularly during the liquidation of the ghettos), and the Einsatzgruppen alone are estimated to have killed up to 1.3 million Jews throughout the Holocaust. By early 1945, Soviet forces had largely expelled the German armies from Poland and liberated the concentration and extermination camps; by this time, Poland had lost roughly ninety percent of its pre-war Jewish population, and suffered approximately three million further civilian and military deaths. By 1991, Poland's Jewish population was estimated to be just 15 thousand people, while there were fewer than two thousand Jews recorded as living in Poland in 2018.

The number of soldiers killed in Afghanistan in 2021 amounted to 13 from the Western coalition, as of October 2021. Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) is a large military operation, being carried out within the framework of the War on Terror.

Afghanistan War

As mentioned above, Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan, which began in October 7, 2001, caused the deaths of many soldiers during the period from 2001 to 2020. Operation Enduring Freedom is an American term for the Afghanistan War, used by the U.S. government.

Operation Enduring Freedom was a response to the terror attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001 and the beginning of the Global War on Terrorism.

Although it has been nearly 20 years since the Americans started the Global War on Terror, there are still many terrorist attacks in Afghanistan. About 1,750 terrorist attacks were counted in the country 2019.

Due to terrorism in Afghanistan, the number of deaths has increased from 1,952 killed people in 2007 up to 5,312 killed people in 2015 by terrorists. In 2019, the number stood at 8,681.

Turks and Caicos Islands saw a murder rate of ***** per 100,000 inhabitants, making it the most dangerous country for this kind of crime worldwide as of 2024. Interestingly, El Salvador, which long had the highest global homicide rates, has dropped out of the top 29 after a high number of gang members have been incarcerated. Meanwhile, Colima in Mexico was the most dangerous city for murders. Violent conflicts worldwide Notably, these figures do not include deaths that resulted from war or a violent conflict. While there is a persistent number of conflicts worldwide, resulting casualties are not considered murders. Partially due to this reason, homicide rates in Latin America are higher than those in Afghanistan or Syria. A different definition of murder in these circumstances could change the rate significantly in some countries. Causes of death Also, noteworthy is that murders are usually not random events. In the United States, the circumstances of murders are most commonly arguments, followed by narcotics incidents and robberies. Additionally, murders are not a leading cause of death. Heart diseases, strokes and cancer pose a greater threat to life than violent crime.

The statistic shows the al-Qaeda terrorist attacks by death toll in 1993 and 2010. 3,000 people were killed in the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and on the Pentagon in Washington on September 11, 2001.

Additional information on Al-Qaeda

Al-Qaeda, founded in Afghanistan in 1988, is a militant Sunni Islamist terrorist organization. The group obtained worldwide attention when it conducted and subsequently claimed responsibility for the attack on the World Trade Centre in New York on September 11, 2001. In response the United States of America under the leadership of George W. Bush launched counter-terrorism efforts as part of the so-called war on terror, including direct efforts against Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan following the country’s invasion by United States and allied forces. In the years between 2000 and 2013 Al-Qaeda was responsible for 1,089 attacks, behind only the Taliban in number of terrorist attacks worldwide, by organization, for that period.

A look at the number of terrorist attacks of major terrorist organizations worldwide from 2000 to 2013, by target group, shows 520 of the 1,089 attacks conducted by Al-Qaeda were targeted at government, police and military targets. The rational for these attacks not only being operational but also the highly symbolic threat to overall safety such attacks demonstrate. While Al-Qaeda did not match the frequency of attacks made by the Taliban in this period they proved to be more harmful in such attacks. The number of deaths and injuries from terrorist attacks worldwide between 2000 and 2013 shows at Al-Qaeda were responsible for 12,185 injuries, over 3000 more than the Taliban.

In Europe, the Baltic countries of Latvia and Lithuania had the highest and third highest homicide rates respectively in 2022. Latvia had the highest rate at over four per 100,000 inhabitants. Meanwhile, the lowest homicide rate was found in Liechtenstein, with zero murders The most dangerous country worldwide Saint Kitts and Nevis is the world's most dangerous country to live in in terms of murder rate. The Caribbean country had a homicide rate of 65 per 100,000 inhabitants. Nine of the 10 countries with the highest murder rates worldwide are located in Latin America and the Caribbean. Whereas Celaya in Mexico was listed as the city with the highest murder rate worldwide, Colima in Mexico was the city with the highest homicide rate in Latin America, so the numbers vary from source to source. Nevertheless, several Mexican cities rank among the deadliest in the world when it comes to intentional homicides. Violent conflicts worldwide Notably, these figures do not include deaths that resulted from war or a violent conflict. While there is a persistent number of conflicts worldwide, resulting casualties are not considered murders. Partially due to this reason, homicide rates in Latin America are higher than those in countries such as Ukraine or the DR Congo. A different definition of murder in these circumstances could change the rate significantly.

Over the past 75 years, women have generally had a higher life expectancy than men by around 4-6 years. Reasons for this difference include higher susceptibility to childhood diseases among males; higher rates of accidental deaths, conflict-related deaths, and suicide among adult men; and higher prevalence of unhealthy lifestyle habits and chronic illnesses, as well as higher susceptibility to chronic diseases among men. Therefore, men not only have lower life expectancy than women overall, but also throughout each stage of life. Throughout the given period, there were notable dips in life expectancy for both sexes, including a roughly four year drop in 1960 due to China's so-called Great Leap Forward, and a 1.8 year drop due to the Covid-19 pandemic in 2021. Across the world, differences in life expectancy can vary between the sexes by large margins. In countries such as the Nordics, for example, the difference is low due to high-quality healthcare systems and access, as well as high quality diets and lifestyles. In Eastern Europe, however, the difference is over 10 years in Russia and Ukraine due to the war, although the differences were already very pronounced in this region before 2022, in large part driven by unhealthier lifestyles among men.

As of 2021, there were over 200,000 living United States veterans who served in the Second World War. The Department of Veteran Affairs projects that the number of living veterans will decline rapidly in the fifteen years until 2036, at which point just a few hundred Americans who served in the war will be still alive. The passing of the "Greatest Generation" is seen as symbolic by some, as for many people they represented the era when the United States' power on the world stage was at its greatest. The Second World war is particularly remembered as a "just" war in the U.S., as the United States was seen as fighting for democracy and self-determination, and against the tyrannies of Fascism, Nazism, and Japanese Imperialism.

The United States' involvement in the Second World War

World War II marked the peak in military enlistments in U.S. history, with over 16 million service members serving worldwide during the conflict. The U.S. joined the war in 1941 due to Imperial Japan's attack on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, before joining the European theater of the war in 1944 during the Invasion of Normandy. The U.S. military played a vital role in the defeat of Nazi Germany on the Western Front in May 1945, while the Soviet Red Army defeated the Wehrmacht in the East. The U.S. was also vital in the defeat of Fascist Italy, as they had led an allied invasion force onto the Italian peninsula from Northern Africa in September 1943. The final action of the war took place in the Asian theater of war, as Imperial Japan was the last of the Axis powers to concede defeat to the Allies. The United States effectively ended the war with the dropping of two nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, leading to as many as a quarter of a million deaths. It remains to this day the sole use of atomic weapons in an active conflict.