The human cost of the war fell heaviest on the USSR, for which the official total, military and civilian, is given as more than 20 million killed. The Allied military and civilian losses were 44 million; those of the Axis, 11 million. The military deaths on both sides in Europe numbered 19 million and in the war against Japan, 6 million. The U.S., which had no significant civilian losses, sustained 292,131 battle deaths and 115,187 deaths from other causes. The highest numbers of deaths, military and civilian, were as follows:
USSR more than 13,000,000 military and 7,000,000 civilian;
China 3,500,000 and 10,000,000;
Germany 3,500,000 and 3,800,000;
Poland 120,000 and 5,300,000;
Japan 1,700,000 and 380,000;
Yugoslavia 300,000 and 1,300,000;
Romania 200,000 and 465,000;
France 250,000 and 360,000;
British Empire and Commonwealth 452,000 and 60,000;
Italy 330,000 and 80,000;
Hungary 120,000 and 280,000; and Czechoslovakia 10,000 and 330,000.
Perhaps the most significant casualty over the long term was the world balance of power. Britain, France, Germany, and Japan ceased to be great powers in the traditional military sense, leaving only two, the United States and the Soviet Union.
