The Human Cost
70,000
disputed broad estimate
The 70,000 display allocation is disputed. Military returns, deaths from wounds and disease, occupation violence, guerrilla warfare, and civilian deaths are unevenly recorded across three countries.
Each dot below represents 1,000 human lives. Scroll to watch the scale unfold.
Working allocation: 55,000 soldiers killed in combat, from wounds, or from disease. Each = 1,000 lives.
15,000 civilians killed — from violence, famine, disease, and displacement. Wars are not fought only by soldiers.
incl. 2,000 civilians
incl. 1,000 civilians
incl. 100 civilians
How War of the Pacific's dead compare to other conflicts and events.
7,000 dead
Tacna's defeat effectively ended Bolivia's participation in the war — after it, Bolivia never again put an army in the field.
11,000 dead
Chorrillos was the war's bloodiest battle; the sack and burning of the town afterward killed civilians and left lasting bitterness between Chile and Peru.
55,000 dead
Casualty figures for the war are uncertain estimates; many deaths came from disease and the brutal conditions of desert and high-altitude campaigning as much as from combat.