The Human Cost
224,200
disputed broad estimate
The 224,200 display allocation uses common rounded estimates. Filipino military and especially civilian deaths from violence, famine, and disease vary widely; the 1902 endpoint also excludes continuing resistance.
Each dot below represents 1,000 human lives. Scroll to watch the scale unfold.
Working allocation: 24,200 soldiers killed in combat, from wounds, or from disease. Each = 1,000 lives.
200,000 civilians killed — from violence, famine, disease, and displacement. Wars are not fought only by soldiers.
incl. 200 civilians
incl. 50 civilians
incl. 30 civilians
incl. 50 civilians
incl. 30 civilians
How Phil-Am War's dead compare to other conflicts and events.
4,200 dead
Nearly two-thirds of American deaths came from disease — cholera, dysentery, malaria — rather than combat.
20,000 dead
Filipino military deaths are estimates; the Republic kept no reliable central records after the shift to guerrilla war in late 1899.
200,000 dead
Civilian estimates range from 200,000 to as high as 775,000 when the 1902–1904 cholera epidemic, spread by wartime dislocation and reconcentration, is included.