World War I casualties

The number of World War I casualties, both military and civilian, was over 40 million &mdash; 20 million deaths and 21 million wounded. This includes 9.7 million military deaths and about 10.0 million civilian deaths. The Entente Powers (also known as the Allies) lost more than 5 million soldiers and the Central Powers about 4 million.

Classification of Casualty Statistics
Estimates for World War I casualty numbers vary to a great extent Military casualty statistics listed here include combat related deaths as well as losses caused by accidents, disease and prisoner of war deaths. The table lists total deaths; the footnotes give a breakout between combat and non-combat losses. Most civilian deaths during World War I were due to war related famine and disease. Civilian deaths due to the Spanish flu have been excluded from these figures, whenever possible. Furthermore, estimates of civilian deaths include the Armenian Genocide, and it is debated to which degree - or if at all - this event should be included. The data listed here is from official sources, whenever available. These sources are cited below.

Table sources


The main sources used for military and civilian deaths (unless stated otherwise in the footnotes below) are:


 * The Commonwealth War Graves Commission Annual Report 2005-2006 is the source of the military dead for the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, South Africa, and India. The war dead totals listed in the report are based on the research by the CWGC to identify and commemorate Commonwealth war dead. The totals include those killed or missing in action and died of wounds as well as deaths due to disease, accidents; deaths of prisoners of war, military deaths outside of combat theaters and war related deaths during 1919-1921. The report is available online at.


 * Statistics of the Military Effort of the British Empire During the Great War 1914-1920, The War Office March 1922 -This report lists the deaths of 908,371 soldiers killed or missing in action; died of wounds; and POW deaths in the combat theaters from to 1914-18. The figures from the War Office report for the UK and Dominion nations are listed in the footnotes.The losses of Bulgaria and Portugal were also listed in the War Office report.


 * Casualties and Medical Statistics, 1931, the final volume of the Official Medical History of the War, gives a breakout of British Empire Army losses by cause of death. Total losses in combat theaters from 1914-1918 were 876,084, which included 418,361 killed, 167,172 died of wounds, 113,173 died of disease or injury, 161,046 missing and presumed dead and 16,332 prisoner of war deaths . These losses were not broken out for the UK and each Dominion..


 * Huber M.,La Population de la France pendant la guerre, Paris 1931, This study published by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace lists official data for war related military deaths and missing of France and its colonies.


 * Mortara, G. La Salute pubblica in Italia durante e dopo la Guerra, New Haven: Yale University Press 1925. The official government Italian statistics on war dead are listed here. A brief summary of data from this report can be found online at -(go to Vol 13, No. 15).


 * Urlanis, B. Wars and Population, Moscow 1971. Lists the military dead of Russia, Greece, Serbia and Montenegro.. Estimated combat related casualties; killed and missing in action or died of wounds are detailed for each nation. These figures are listed in the footnotes.


 * Heeres-Sanitätsinspektion im Reichskriegsministeriums, Sanitätsbericht über das deutsche Heer, (Deutsches Feld- und Besatzungsheer), im Weltkriege 1914-1918, Volume 3, Sec. 1, Berlin 1934.- The official German Army medical war history listed German losses.


 * Grebler, Leo-  The Cost of the World War to Germany and Austria-Hungary, Yale University Press, 1940-This study published by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace details the losses of Austria-Hungary and Germany in the war


 * Edward J. Erickson, Ordered to Die: A History of the Ottoman Army in the First World War, Greenwood 2001. The data published here for casualties is from official Ottoman sources


 * L. Hersch, La mortalité causée par la guerre mondiale, Metron- The International Review of Statistics, 1927, Vol 7. No 1. Detailed the demographic impact of the war on France, the UK, Italy, Belgium, Portugal, Serbia, Romania and Greece.

The main source for military wounded (unless stated otherwise in the footnotes below) is:
 * Tucker, Spencer C. The European Powers in the First World War: An Encyclopedia, Garland Publishing, New York, 1996.

The source of population data is.
 * Haythornthwaite, Philip J., The World War One Source Book Arms and Armour, 1993.

Main article
World War I

Other

 * Allies of World War I
 * Thankful villages - villages in England and Wales which lost no men in World War I
 * Turkish-Armenian War, Armenian-Azerbaijani War, and Georgian-Armenian War 1918


 * World War II casualties