Večen bo na vas spomin - Manica Koman, 1915

World War 1 casualties

The historical literature on World War I is still arguing about the number of WWI casualties, with a range between 6 and 13 million.  The main reason for the different estimates lies in the term 'loss', which in the military terminology of the time included all those soldiers who were no longer able to fight, and who may have been dead, wounded or captured. Nevertheless, some figures relating to military losses are more accurate, specifically those concerning soldiers who died on the battlefield or as prisoners of war.  Of the 60 million soldiers who fought in the First World War, over 9 million were killed — 14% of the combat troops or 6,000 dead soldiers per day. The armies of the Central Powers mobilised 25 million soldiers and 3.5 million of them died. The Entente Powers deployed 40 million soldiers and lost more than 5 million. The mortality rate ranged between 6% and 30%, with the highest in the armies of Serbia, Montenegro and the Turkish Empire, mainly due to large epidemics of cholera, typhoid and smallpox, against which the armies of other countries vaccinated their troops. Infectious diseases did also spread in other armies, but with a lower mortality rate.  In absolute numbers, major battles on all fronts claimed the highest number of casualties, primarily because of the technology of warfare based on explosive artillery shells. The death toll among prisoners of war amounted to between 5 and 10 % of prisoners.

The Austro-Hungarian army mobilised around 8 million soldiers, of whom 1,016,000 (12.7%) died, 1,691,000 were missing (21.1%), while 437,000 officers and soldiers were taken captive by the Italians as prisoners of war after the signing of the Armistice; around 478,000 officers and soldiers died in Russian, Serbian and Italian captivity.  The Austro-Hungarian army supposedly deployed 160,000 soldiers from the Slovenian territory to fight on WW1 battlefields. The current estimates suggest that approximately 35,000 of them died by the end of 1917. Some estimates indicate that the Isonzo Front battlefields claimed from 2,000 to 3,000 lives of Slovenian soldiers. After the war, the number of those disabled from the war in the Slovenian part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes amounted to 11,467, and about 30,000 war widows had to take care of around 49,000 war orphans.

Data on civilian casualties from WWI are very limited and uncertain, suggesting an estimated 6 million casualties among the civilian population. The highest death rate was caused by hunger, deprivation and disease, while we should not neglect the civilian casualties suffered during military occupation and retaliation (Belgium, Serbia, Galicia, Isonzo Front), among which the Armenian genocide in Turkey, which claimed between 1 and 2 million dead Armenians, stands out.

Entente Powers

Population (million)

Mobilised soldiers

Dead soldiers

Civilian casualties

Total number of dead

Great Britain and Ireland

46.1

6,100.000

750,000

600,000

1.350,000

Belgium

7.6

292,000

38,000

50,000

88,000

France

39.0

8.100,000

1,327,000

600,000

1,927,000

Greece

4.9

449,000

25,000

 

25,000

Italy

36.0

4.300,000

460,000

700,000?

1,160,000

Japan

53.0

30,000

1000

 

1000

Montenegro

0.2

50,000

13,000

 

13,000

Portugal

6.1

100,000

7,000

 

7,000

Romania

7.6

750,000

250,000

300,000

550,000

Russia

164

15.800,000

1,811,000 to
2,254,369

500,000
(borders from 1914)

2,311,000 to
2,754,369

Serbia

3.1

750,000

275,000

300,000

525,000

United States of America

98.8

2.100,000

117,000

 

117,000

Australia

4.5

349,000

61,966

 

61,966

New Zealand

1.1

100,00

18,052

 

18,052

Central Powers

Population (million)

 

Dead soldiers

Direct civilian casualties

Total number of dead

Austro-Hungarian Empire

52.6

 

1,460,000

400,000?

1,860,000

Bulgaria

4.7

 

88,000

300,000

388,000

Germany

67.8

 

2,037,000

700,000

2,737,000

Turkey

17.3

 

325,000

2.000,000

2,325,000

Source: Brill`s Encyclopedia of the First World War. Leiden, Boston: Brill, 2012.

International Encyclopedia of the First World War