We explain how many victims (military and civilian) there were in World War II in the different countries that were involved in the conflict.
World War II was the conflict with the highest number of deaths in all of history.
What was World War II?
World War II was the war with the highest number of total deaths in the history of humanity.Between 1939 and 1945, it is estimated that nearly seventy-five million civilians and military personnel from all over the world died.
The countries with the highest number of military deaths were the Soviet Union (over ten million), Germany (over five million), China (nearly four million) and Japan (over two million). However, in relation to civilian deaths, China had the highest number of fatalities (reached sixteen million).
The battles with the highest number of casualties in World War II were the Battle of Stalingrad with almost two million casualties, the Battle of Moscow with almost one and a half million casualties, and the Battle of Berlin with over one million casualties. The figures for World War II casualties include the victims of the Jewish Holocaust carried out by the Nazi Party of Germany in all occupied territories. It is estimated that more than six million Jews died due to systematic Nazi persecution.along with other social groups such as Slavs and Gypsies, whose deaths reach the figure of five hundred million people.
Data on military deaths in World War II were collected by different agencies during the conflict. Although there are differences between the estimates made by the various sources, the published figures remain more or less close.
However, the recording of civilian deaths linked to World War II was carried out by different institutions after the war, and estimates vary widely between sources. For some specific situations, figures vary by millions of victims.
Total deaths by country in World War II
The following table shows a summary of the countries that suffered the most victims due to the war. In the case of the estimated figures of civilian deaths, when the sources show divergence, it was decided to take an average between the proposed figures. In addition, there are countries that only suffered civilian deaths because they were occupied by enemy armies but did not send soldiers to the battle fronts.
Military and civilian deaths by country in World War II
Country
Military deaths
Civilian deaths
Total deaths
Germany
5,533,000 2,167,000
7,700,000
Japan
2,120,000 730,000
2,850,000
Romania
300,000 533,000
833,000
Hungary
300,000 280,000
580,000
Italy
301,400 155,600
457,000
Austria
261,000 123,700
384,700
Finland
95,000 2,000
97,000
Total The Axis
8,910,400
3,991,300
12,901,700
Soviet Union
10,700,000 13,300,000
24,000,000
China
4,000,000 16,000,000
20,000,000
Poland
240,000 5,360,000
5,600,000
Dutch East Indies
0 3,500,000
3,500,000
India
87,000 1,913,000
2,000,000
French Indochina
0 1,250,000
1,250,000
Yugoslavia
446,000 554,000
1,000,000
Philippines
57,000 693,000
750,000
France
217,600 350,000
567,600
Greece
27,000 523,000
550,000
United Kingdom
383,000 67,700
450,700
Korea
0 425,000
425,000
USA
416,800 1,700
418,500
Lithuania
0 353,000
353,000
Czechoslovakia
25,000 320,000
345,000
Netherlands
17,000 284,000
301,000
Latvia
0 227,000
227,000
Ethiopia
5,000 95,000
100,000
Malaysia
0 100,000
100,000
Belgium
12,100 74,000
86.100
Estonia
0 51,000
51,000
Singapore
0 50,000
50,000
Canada
45,400 0
45,400
Australia
39,800 700
40,500
Albania
30,000 200
30.200
Bulgaria
22,000 3,000
25,000
Papua New Guinea
0 15,000
15,000
New Zealand
11.900 0
11.900
Union of South Africa
11.900 0
11.900
Norway
3,000 6,500
9.500
Denmark
2,100 1,000
3.200
Luxembourg
0 2.000
2.000
Total Allies
16,799,600
45,519,900
62,319,500
Totals
25,710,000
49.511.200
75.221.200
The countries with the most total deaths from World War II were:
- Soviet Union: of 24 million deaths
- China: 20 million deaths
- Germany: 7.7 million deaths
- Poland: 5.6 million deaths
- Indies Eastern Netherlands: 3.5 million deaths
- Japan: 2.8 million deaths
- India: 2 million deaths
- French Indochina: 1.2 million deaths
- Yugoslavia: 1 million deaths
- Romania: 0.8 million deaths
Countries with the most civilian deaths in World War II
Civilian deaths in World War II include millions of people. The countries on the Allied side suffered the greatest number of civilian deaths than the countries on the Axis side.
In China, more than 16 million civilians died, in the Soviet Union more than 13 million and in Poland more than 5 million. The Axis country with the highest number of civilian deaths was Germany, with 2 million fatalities.
Civilian deaths include victims of the Holocaust and the persecution of the German Nazi Party, which reached the death of 6,000,000 Jews from different countries who suffered the German occupation.
Another of the most fatal attacks on civilians was the nuclear bombing that the Army of The United States bombed the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.
It is estimated that between seventy thousand and two hundred and twenty thousand people died immediately in Hiroshima (according to different documentary sources) and more than sixty thousand died during the following year from burns and exposure to nuclear radiation.
The nuclear bomb dropped on Nagasaki three days after Hiroshima killed between sixty and seventy-five thousand people immediately, and almost one hundred thousand during the following year.
Countries with the most military deaths in World War II
The country that suffered the most military deaths was the Soviet Union.: More than 10,700,000 soldiers lost their lives on the battle fronts. China lost 4,000,000 lives. None of the other Allied countries had a number of military deaths greater than 450,000 soldiers.
The Axis countries with the highest number of military deaths were Germany with 5,533,000 soldiers killed and Japan with 2,120,000. Fatal losses in Italy, Hungary and Romania reached 300,000 soldiers each.
Military casualties by country in World War II
Military casualties include the number of dead, wounded, prisoners of war and missing that an army suffers in relation to its number of soldiers. The Axis countries with the most military casualties were Germany with 11,900,000 and Japan with 6,110,000. On the Allied side, the Soviet Union had 11,000,000 casualties and China 3,178,423.
Military casualties by country in World War II
Country
Dead
Wounded
Prisoners or missing persons
Total military casualties
Germany 3,500,000 5,000,000 3,400,000 11,900,000 Japan 1,300,000 4,000,000 810,000 6,110,000 Romania 300,000 – 100,000 400,000 Italy 242,000 66,000 350,000 658,000 Hungary 200,000 – 170,000 370,000 Finland 82,000 50,000 – 132,000
Total The Axis
5,624,000
9,116,000
4,830,000
19,570,000
Soviet Union 11,000,000 – – 11,000,000 China 1,310,224 1,752,951 115,248 3,178,423 United Kingdom and Commonwealth 373,372 475,047 251,724 1,100,143 Yugoslavia 305,000 425,000 – 730,000 United States 292,131 671,801 139,709 1,103,641 France 213,324 400,000 – 613,324 Poland 123,178 236,606 420,760 780,544 Greece 88,300 – – 88,300 Philippines 27,000 – – 27,000 Belgium 12,000 – – 12,000 Czechoslovakia 10,000 – – 10,000 Netherlands 7,900 2,860 – 10,760 Norway 3,000 – – 3,000 Denmark 1,800 – – 1,800 Brazil 943 4,222 – 5,165
Total Allies
13.768.172
3,968,487
927.441
18,664,100
Total
19,392,172
13,084,487
5,757,441
38.234.100
Holocaust victims
The Holocaust was a systematic persecution of the Jewish population by the Nazi Party that ruled Germany from 1933 to 1945. The Nazis believed that the Aryan race was superior and wanted to “purge” the nation to make it racially homogeneous. They argued that Jews living in Germany were a threat to the Aryan community and that it was necessary to “extirpate” them from society.
In addition to attacking the Jewish population, The Nazi Party persecuted other groups that “weakened” the Aryan community because of their racial origin, ideology or social status.l. Along with Jews, the Nazis persecuted populations of Slavic and Gypsy origin, homosexual people, people with physical disabilities and militants of the political opposition, especially communists and socialists.
There is no official record from the Nazi government that allows us to accurately determine the number of victims of the Holocaust. The statistics are the product of joint research by specialists based on different sources such as censuses, records of prisoners of war from the different governments of the Axis side and post-war analyses.
The following table defines the number of deaths at the hands of the Nazi regime and its collaborators between 1939 and 1945. These figures were calculated by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum based on war reports from Nazi Party military agents and demographic studies of World War II victims.
Civilian deaths at the hands of the Nazi regime (1939-1945)
Group Number of deaths Jews 6,000,000 Civilians of the Soviet Union 7,000,000 (of whom 1,300,000 were Jews and are included in the group “Jews”) Prisoners of war
from the Soviet Union 3,000,000
(of which 50,000 were Jews and are included in the group “Jews”) Non-Jewish Polish civilians 1,800,000 Serbian civilians (in the occupied territories of Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina) 312,000 Physically disabled people 250,000 Gypsies 250,000-500,000 Detained criminals 70,000 Jehovah’s Witnesses 1,900 Opposition militants
(socialists and communists) undetermined Homosexuals undetermined
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References
- Hughes, Thomas A. and Royde-Smith, John Graham (2023). “World War II”. Encyclopedia Britannica
https://www.britannica.com/ - Nolan, CJ (2010). The Concise Encyclopedia of World War II. Bloomsbury Publishing USA.
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (2020). “Documenting numbers of victims of the Holocaust and Nazi Persecution”. Holocaust Encyclopedia. https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/.