Title: How Many People Died in the First World War? | History Hit
Headings: How Many People Died in the First World War?
How Many People Died in the First World War?
Peter Curry
Loss of life in Britain
Outside Europe

Content: It is difficult to estimate the total number of deaths, as civilian mortality was not well documented. Consequently civilian deaths are “hazardous to estimate” according to Michael Clodfelter, who maintains that “the generally accepted figure of noncombatant deaths is 6.5 million.” Even the estimates for the number of military deaths are somewhat erratic, and we will never know the true total for the amount of deaths during the war. Around six million men were enlisted in Great Britain, and around 700,000 of those men were killed. Cemetery of the war dead in Verdun. Credit: Commons. Loss of life in Britain
While the great majority of casualties in World War One were from the working class, the social and political elite were hit disproportionately hard by the war. There is a persistent myth that while many more working class men perished, the British upper classes got off lightly in World War One. In fact, the elite suffered as much as the working classes.