World War I casualties - Definition

This article contains a summary of deaths by nationality during World War I.

Military casualties

Included in parentheses is the percent of the total forces mobilized by that country that were killed in action.

Number of Allied soldiers killed in each country

Number of Central Powers soldiers killed in each country

Allied soldiers killed

• Belgium: 13,700 (5.14%)
• British Empire: 908,000 (10.20%)
  • Australia: 60,000
  • Canada: 55,000
  • India: 25,000
  • New Zealand: 16,000
  • South Africa: 7,000
  • United Kingdom: 715,000
• France: 1,300,000 (16.36%)
  • French colonies: 100,000
• Greece: 5,000 (2.17%)
• Italy: 650,000 (11.58%)
• Japan: 300 (0.04%)
• Montenegro: 3,000 (6.00%)
• Portugal: 7,200 (7.22%)
• Romania: 336,000 (44.76%)
• Russia: 1,700,000 (14.17%)
• Serbia: 45,000 (6.36%)
• United States: 126,000 (2.89%)

Total Allied soldiers killed: approximately 5.5 million

Central Powers soldiers killed

• Austria-Hungary: 1,200,000 (15.38%)
• Bulgaria: 87,500 (7.29%)
• Germany: 1,800,000 (16.12%)
• Ottoman Empire: 325,000 (11.40%)

Total Central Powers soldiers killed: approximately 3.4 million.

Civilians killed

• Austria-Hungary: 300,000
• Belgium: 30,000
• Bulgaria: 275,000
• France: 40,000
• Germany: 760,000
• Greece: 132,000
• Romania: 275,000
• Russia: 3,000,000
• Serbia: 650,000
• Ottoman Empire: 1,000,000
• United Kingdom: 31,000

Total civilians killed: approximately 6.5 million

Note that there is some debate if indirect casualties, like those killed by the Spanish Flu should be counted. If so, 25 million to 40 million more civilians should be added to the WWI death toll.

See Also

World War II casualties

Reference

• Trenches on the Web (http://www.worldwar1.com/tlcrates.htm)