I think it is almost impossible for people today to comprehend the destruction that occurs during total warfare unless they have had the misfortune of living in a war zone.
I will forego superlatives and simply share the hard numbers as best as we know them. The numbers are estimates of course, calculated by academics and experts. But they reveal the cold, hard reality and the magnitude of the destruction that occurred during World War II.
The total number of casualties are estimated at between 70 – 85 million people, or about 3 percent of the world population in 1940. Civilians bore the brunt of the war, and incurred the greatest number of casualties.
Let’s break the numbers down a bit.
- Deaths caused directly by the war are estimated at between 70 – 85 million. This includes both military and civilian deaths.
- Civilian deaths are estimated at between 50 – 55 million.
- Military deaths are estimated at between 20 – 30 million.
- More than half of the total number of casualties come from the dead from the Republic of China and the Soviet Union.
- At the end of World War II, at least 40 million people had been displaced from the home country.
- Approximately 11 million displaced persons resided in Allied-occupied Germany at the end of the war. This included Jewish and non-Jewish concentration camp survivors, released slave laborers, and former prisoners of war.
- More than 1 million displaced persons could not return to their home county because of fear of persecution. Many of these people did not wish to return to countries where a communist regime had been installed.
In terms of property loss, the numbers are harder to come by.
- Property loss, which includes buildings, housing units, and infrastructure was estimated at over $1 trillion dollars (US) in 1945. That is the equivalent of more than $21 trillion dollars today or more than 3.5 times the U.S. Federal budget for 2022.
As you can see, there are many superlatives that could be used to describe World War II. What comes to my mind is most horrific. But deadliest, costliest, or most destructive war ever waged are all accurate.