The Seven Years' War

2,400,000

estimated total dead

Each dot below represents 1,000 human lives. Scroll to watch the scale unfold.

Military Dead

1,400,000 soldiers killed in combat, from wounds, or from disease. Each = 1,000 lives.

Prussia & Great Britain — 200,000 military dead

Austria, France & Russia — 1,200,000 military dead

Civilian Dead

1,000,000 civilians killed — from violence, famine, disease, and displacement. Wars are not fought only by soldiers.

Civilian dead — 1,000,000

Deadliest Engagements

Kunersdorf43,000

Torgau40,000

Zorndorf36,000

Leuthen24,000

Minden12,000

Rossbach10,548

Quiberon Bay4,000

Plassey1,300

For Perspective

How Seven Years' War's dead compare to other conflicts and events.

Seven Years' War — total dead2,400,000

American Revolution total dead25,000

Napoleonic Wars (France alone)900,000

Prussia's losses as % of population (1 in 9)500,000

Milestones of Loss

43,000 dead

Battle of Kunersdorf alone — 43,000 dead and wounded in one afternoon

200,000 dead

Prussia's total dead — nearly 1 in 9 of its entire population

500,000 dead

Total European battlefield dead — the bloodiest war between the Thirty Years' War and the Napoleonic era

1,400,000 dead

Estimated total military dead across all theaters — Europe, India, the Americas, and the Caribbean

2,400,000 dead

Total dead including civilian losses — famine, disease, and displacement across three continents

All figures are historical estimates and vary across sources. The true human cost of war is impossible to fully quantify — these numbers represent the best scholarly consensus. Each number was a person with a name, a family, and a life unlived.