# WW2 **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 14, 2001, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ww2/81632 "2001-09-14T17:04:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![toscar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f9ae1b/32.png) [@toscar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toscar)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2001, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ww2/81632/1 "2001-09-14T17:04:47Z")
Could Little Nemo tell us how WW2 casualties relate percentage-wise to the populations of the main protagonists? ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2001, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ww2/81632/2 "2001-09-14T21:48:22Z")
Main protagonists only or antagonists too? I’m going to bump this one time. Hey, it’s the guys 2nd post. [bump] ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2001, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ww2/81632/3 "2001-09-14T22:27:08Z")
Toscar, I’m guessing you were reading this thread [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=86827](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=86827) and hit New Thread instead of Post Reply. Maybe one of the mods can rectify this. Anyway, in that thread, I posted: > [@](#): > > The Soviet Union had approximately 28,848,000 people killed. Of this, approximately 10,000,000 were military personnel (including partisans). > The United States had approximately 409,000 people killed, of whom all but approximately 1,000 were military. > The United Kingdom had approximately 363,000 people killed, of whom approximately 258,000 were military. I got my figures incidentally from _World War Two: Nation by Nation_ by J. Lee Ready. This same source gave me the following 1939 population figures: Soviet Union = 190,000,000 United States = 131,000,000 United Kingdom = 46,000,000 Plugging these in, we see that the Soviet Union lost over 1 out every 7 people from its prewar population. The United Kingdom lost 1 out of 127. The United States lost 1 out of 321. The Soviet Union however did not have the highest casualty rate of the war. Poland, with a prewar population of 34,325,000, suffered 5,780,000 deaths during the war; a loss of one sixth its population. ---
**Author:** ![toscar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f9ae1b/32.png) [@toscar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toscar)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2001, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ww2/81632/4 "2001-09-15T12:02:18Z")
Yes, it was the guy’s second post! ---
**Author:** ![London\_Calling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@London\_Calling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/London_Calling)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2001, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ww2/81632/5 "2001-09-15T13:11:54Z")
I read quite recently that the population of Serbia (I think Serbia, certainly a Balkan nation) lost ¼ of it’s people during WW2 but I have no link to support that assertion. ---
**Author:** ![London\_Calling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@London\_Calling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/London_Calling)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2001, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ww2/81632/6 "2001-09-15T13:16:27Z")
Incidentally, you might find the figures for Australia and, particularly, New Zealand in both World Wars higher than most, if not all, western countries. Also, if you were to do the same analysis for WW1, I think you might be very surprised by the figures for France (approx 1.3 million dead, IIRC). ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2001, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ww2/81632/7 "2001-09-16T05:27:44Z")
I’m getting my money’s worth out of Ready this week. To answer London’s questions, the prewar population of Yugoslavia was 16,500,000 of whom 6,600,000 were Serbs (obviously all the figures I’ve posted are approximate). The author admits there are no precise figures for war dead; he gives a conservative estimate of 800,000 and a liberal one of 1,700,000. He does not unfortunately break the death toll down by ethnic group (other than to specifically mention that 90% of Yugoslavia’s 100,000 gypsies and 85% of its 78,000 Jews were killed.) But even the highest possible figure wouldn’t account for a quarter of the Serbian population. As for Australia and New Zealand: Australia had 31,200 killed from a population of 7,700,000; New Zealand had 13,081 killed from a population of 1,700,000. Ready points out that New Zealand’s casualty rate was 20% higher than Britain’s and twice America’s. In addition, New Zealand’s 2nd Division suffered over 200% casualties, the highest loss of any Western Allied division. ---
**Author:** ![casdave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c6cbf5/32.png) [@casdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/casdave)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2001, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ww2/81632/8 "2001-09-16T06:33:05Z")
I think the highest percentage of population killed is Poland with a total of 6.85 millions killed. The separate invasions of both Russia and Germany, the extermination policy of Germany and the susequent re-invasion by Russia accounts for this. IIRC the population was reduced by at least 25% ---
**Author:** ![London\_Calling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@London\_Calling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/London_Calling)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2001, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ww2/81632/9 "2001-09-16T11:21:53Z")
Thanks for that, **Little Nemo**