The truly enormous scope of World War II is almost impossible to understand in hindsight. The war devastated vast swathes of Europe, East Asia, the Pacific, and North Africa, while its influence touched upon every part of the planet.
Randal Olson, a Computer Science graduate research assistant at Michigan State University, has helped to illustrate the true devastation. His charts showcase the percentage of a country's population that died during WWII.
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Randy Olson
Belarus suffered the worst devastation of any country during the war in terms of a percentage of its population. Over a quarter of its population, 2,290,000 people, died during the conflict.
Here's another chart that highlights the number of fatalities:
Randy Olson
In terms of total numbers, the Soviet Union bore an incredible brunt of casualties during WWII. An estimated 26,600,000 people died in the war, over 15% of its population. China also lost an astounding 20,000,000 people during the conflict.
As a comparison, here are the number of American deaths in every major war the U.S. entered:
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