Research Communication

Abstract

Those 45 of the hundreds of wars of the first eight decades of the twentieth century that resulted in at least 32 thousand military plus civilian fatalities are each described in brief. About three such high-fatality wars were usually progressing simultaneously in any year, and there was only one year during the period in which none was being waged. The total number of fatalities was about 86 million, between 1% and 2 % of all individuals living during the period. It is concluded that war remains a routine, normal human activity, an activity that accounts for a small, continuing fraction of premature deaths.