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  • World War I in numbers

    Agence France Presse
    December 29, 2013 Sunday 1:17 AM GMT


    World War I in numbers

    PARIS, Dec 29 2013

    Millions of dead, millions more wounded, widowed and orphaned, the
    dizzying figures from World War I provide a small clue to the scale
    and horrors of the 1914-18 conflict.

    The lack of reliable statistical tools at the time makes figures on
    the Great War difficult to pin down, accounting for sometimes
    substantial variations between historians.

    The number of victims on the Russian and Ottoman sides remains
    particularly uncertain.

    AFP has compiled the most widely accepted figures related to the
    conflict, and provided average estimates in cases where major
    discrepancies still exist.

    MORE THAN 70 NATIONS: The figure is slightly anachronistic, since many
    of these nations had yet to gain independence from the six empires and
    colonial powers -- Austria-Hungary, Britain, France, Germany, Russia
    and the Ottoman Empire -- at the heart of the conflict.

    A dozen independent nations went to war in the summer of 1914, the
    rest entering the conflict later like Italy in 1915 or the United
    States in 1917. Together the belligerent nations accounted for more
    than 800 million people, or more than half the world's population at
    the time.

    Only around 20 countries were to remain neutral throughout the
    conflict, most of them in Latin America or northern Europe.

    70 MILLION SOLDIERS: Some 20 million men were mobilised by the warring
    parties at the outset of war in 1914, a figure that rose as the war
    dragged on in time and expanded in scope.

    Close to half of those mobilised were killed or injured.

    Eight million men were mobilised in France, 13 million in Germany,
    nine million in Austria-Hungary, nine million in Britain and the
    British Empire (chiefly India), 18 million in Russia, six million in
    Italy, four million in the United States.

    10 MILLION MILITARY DEAD, 20 MILLION INJURED

    France: 1.4 million dead, 4.2 million injured

    Germany: 1.8 million dead, 4.2 million injured

    Austria-Hungary: 1.4 million dead, 3.6 million injured

    Russia: 1.8 million dead, five million injured

    Britain and British Empire: 900,000 dead, two million injured

    Italy: 600,000 dead, one million injured

    Ottoman Empire: 800,000 dead

    Serbia suffered the worst losses proportionally to the size of its
    army, with 130,000 dead and 135,000 wounded -- three quarters of its
    forces.

    The emblematic battles of Verdun and the Somme, in 1916, left 770,000
    and 1.2 million dead, wounded and missing, on both sides.

    But the opening weeks of the war took the heaviest toll in human
    lives, with 27,000 French soldiers killed in a single day on August
    22, 1914, the deadliest day in the history of the French army.

    Seventy percent of the dead and wounded were hit by artillery fire.
    Between five and six million were mutilated for life. Poison gas, used
    on the battlefield for the first time, claimed 20,000 lives --
    relatively few in terms of the war's overall toll -- but was to loom
    large in the shared memory of the conflict, and with consequences for
    many of the survivors long after the war had ended.

    MILLIONS OF CIVILIAN DEAD: In addition to military losses many
    millions of civilian lives were lost to the fighting. One million
    Armenians were massacred by Turkish forces, while some historians
    believe that up to five million people died in the Russian civil war
    and lingering conflicts that simmered on after 1918 in eastern Europe
    and Turkey.

    A Spanish Influenza epidemic that broke out at the end of the war
    claimed another 20 TO 40 MILLION LIVES among populations often
    weakened by years of deprivation.

    SIX MILLION PRISONERS OF WAR

    20 MILLION LIVING UNDER OCCUPATION at the end of 1915, most of them in
    Belgium, France, Poland and Serbia, living under German,
    Austro-Hungarian and Bulgarian rule.

    10 MILLION REFUGEES across Europe, most of them in Russia, Serbia,
    France, Belgium, Germany and Armenia.

    THREE MILLION WAR WIDOWS, SIX MILLION ORPHANS

    1.3 MILLION SHELLS FIRED, most of them on the Western Front, including
    330 million fired by French artillery and 60 million during the Battle
    of Verdun alone.

    10 BILLION LETTERS AND PACKAGES exchanged between fighters on the
    Western Front and their loved ones during more than 50 months of
    conflict.

    180 BILLION DOLLARS: The estimated cost of the war for the seven main
    belligerents -- Austria-Hungary, Britain, France, Germany, Italy,
    Russia and the United States. Two thirds of the cost was borne by the
    Allies and one third by the Central Powers. It was the equivalent of
    three to four times the combined GDP of the European powers, who were
    ruined by the conflict.

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