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Costs of War

Human

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Costs of War research examines the human toll of U.S. military operations and spending, for U.S. service members, veterans, military contractors, and allies; and for civilians killed and displaced.

An estimated over 940,000 people were killed by direct post-9/11 war violence in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen, and Pakistan between 2001-2023. Of these, more than 432,000 were civilians. The number of people wounded or ill as a result of the conflicts is far higher, as is the number of civilians who died “indirectly,” as a result of wars’ destruction of economies, healthcare systems, infrastructure and the environment. An estimated 3.6-3.8 million people died indirectly in post-9/11 war zones, bringing the total death toll to at least 4.5-4.7 million and counting.

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Civilians Killed & Displaced

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U.S. Military, Veterans, Contractors & Allies

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Related Papers

October 7, 2025

Mass Displacement since October 7, 2023: Flight from War, Genocide, and Expulsion in Gaza, Iran, Israel, Lebanon, and the West Bank

October 7, 2025

The Human Toll of the Gaza War: Direct and Indirect Death from 7 October 2023 to 3 October 2025

Published April 1, 2025

News Graveyards: How Dangers to War Reporters Endanger the World

Published March 24, 2025

Lessons from Fallujah: War Returnees Face Long-Term Health Risks from Heavy Metal Exposure

Published December 10, 2024

Return to Afghanistan: Re-migration and the Failed Reintegration of Millions of Afghans

Published October 7, 2024

The Human Toll: Indirect Deaths from War in Gaza and the West Bank, October 7, 2023 Forward

Published August 14, 2024

Deserted: The U.S. Military's Sexual Assault Crisis as a Cost of War

Published November 7, 2023

Why Media Conflation of Activism with Terrorism has Dire Consequences: The Case of Cop City

November 1, 2023

United States Counterterrorism Operations Under the Biden Administration, 2021-2023

May 15, 2023

How Death Outlives War: The Reverberating Impact of the Post-9/11 Wars on Human Health

Published April 17, 2023

Making Crisis Inevitable: The Effects of U.S. Counterterrorism Training and Spending in Somalia

Published March 15, 2023

Blood and Treasure: United States Budgetary Costs and Human Costs of 20 Years of War in Iraq and Syria, 2003-2023

Published December 20, 2022

Uncompensated Allies: How Contracting Companies and U.S. Government Agencies Failed Third-Country Nationals in Afghanistan

August 26, 2022

Afghanistan before and after 20 years of war (2001-2021)

Published February 8, 2022

Beyond the War Paradigm: What History Tells Us About How Terror Campaigns End

Published September 1, 2021

Human Cost of Post-9/11 Wars: Direct War Deaths in Major War Zones

Figures Updated August 19, 2021

UPDATE: Creating Refugees: Displacement Caused by the United States’ Post-9/11 Wars

Published June 21, 2021

High Suicide Rates among United States Service Members and Veterans of the Post-9/11 Wars

Published May 12, 2021

The Costs of War to United States Allies Since 9/11

Published April 5, 2021

The Costs of Working with the Americans in Afghanistan: The United States’ Broken Special Immigrant Visa Process

Published March 4, 2021

The Costs of United States’ Post-9/11 “Security Assistance”: How Counterterrorism Intensified Conflict in Burkina Faso and Around the World

Published December 7, 2020

Afghanistan’s Rising Civilian Death Toll Due to Airstrikes, 2017-2020

Published October 13, 2020

The Human Cost of U.S. Interventions in Iraq: A History From the 1960s Through the Post-9/11 Wars

Published September 21, 2020

Creating Refugees: Displacement Caused by the United States’ Post-9/11 Wars

Published November 13, 2019

Direct War Deaths in Major War Zones, Afghanistan and Pakistan (October 2001 – October 2019)

Published September 19, 2019

The Human and Financial Costs of the Explosive Remnants of War in Afghanistan

Published September 5, 2019

The Costs of War in Somalia

Published November 8, 2018

Human Cost of the Post-9/11 Wars: Lethality and the Need for Transparency

Published August 23, 2017

The Guards, Cooks, and Cleaners of the Afghan War: Migrant Contractors and the Cost of War

Published June 20, 2017

“Bad Papers”: The Invisible and Increasing Costs of War for Excluded Veterans

Published August 1, 2016

Update on the Human Costs of War for Afghanistan and Pakistan, 2001 to mid‐2016

Published June 7, 2015

Bombing Pakistan: How Colonial Legacy Sustains American Drones

Published May 28, 2015

Not Their War to Fight: The Afghan Police, Families of their Dead, and an American War

Published May 22, 2015

War-related Death, Injury, and Displacement in Afghanistan and Pakistan 2001-2014

Published January 1, 2015

2015 Costs of War Executive Summary

Published December 4, 2014

The Impact of Drone Strikes in Pakistan

Published October 15, 2014

Democratic Aspirations and Destabilizing Outcomes in Afghanistan

Published September 10, 2014

Collective Reckoning with the Post-9/11 Wars on a Colorado Homefront

Published March 1, 2013

Civilian Death and Injury in the Iraq War, 2003-2013

Published February 26, 2013

Imagining Military Suicide

Published February 21, 2013

US and Coalition Casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan

Published November 1, 2012

Civilians Killed in US Operations in Yemen

Published September 9, 2011

War Related Death and Injury in Pakistan, 2004-2011

Published September 1, 2011

Civilian Death and Injury in Afghanistan, 2001-2011

Published September 1, 2011

Civilian Death and Injury in Iraq, 2003-2011

Published June 16, 2011

Coping with 9/11: Alternatives to the War Paradigm

Published June 13, 2011

The War Comes Home: The Toll of War and the Shifting Burden of Care

Published June 13, 2011

Assessing the Human Toll of the Post-9/11 Wars: The Dead and Wounded in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Pakistan, 2001-2011

Published June 13, 2011

The Great Deception: Only Democratic Delusions for Afghans

Published June 13, 2011

Insecurity, Displacement, and Public Health Impacts of the American Invasion of Iraq

Respiratory Disorders Following Service in Iraq

Numbers and Per Capita Distribution of Troops Serving in the U.S. Post-9/11 Wars in the US, By State

Overcrowding in Limbo: Iraqi Refugees in Arab States

War and the Costs of Medical Travel for Iraqis in Lebanon

Terrorism after the 2003 Invasion of Iraq

Contributors

  • Image

    Chantal Berman

    Assistant Professor at the Department of Government at Georgetown University
    chantal.berman@gmail.com
  • Linda Bilmes

    Linda Bilmes

    Daniel Patrick Moynihan Senior Lecturer in Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School
    linda_bilmes@hks.harvard.edu
  • Image

    Noah Coburn

    Political Anthropologist, Bennington College
    ncoburn@bennington.edu
  • Neta C. Crawford

    Neta Crawford

    Montague Burton Professor, University of Oxford , Co-Founder and Strategic Advisor, Costs of War
    netaccrawford@gmail.com
  • Image

    Anila Daulatzai

    Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley
    daulatzai@berkeley.edu
  • Jason Davidson

    Jason Davidson

    Professor of Political Science and International Affairs, University of Mary Washington
    jdavidso@umw.edu
  • Omar Dewachi

    Omar Dewachi

    Associate Professor, SAS, Medical Anthropology, Rutgers University
    omar.dewachi@rutgers.edu
  • Cynthia Enloe

    Cynthia Enloe

    Research Professor of Political Science in the Department of Sustainability and Social Justice, with affiliations in Women’s and Gender Studies and Political Science, Clark University
    cenloe@clarku.edu
  • Elisa Epstein

    Elisa Epstein

    Law Student, Advocacy Officer
    elisacepstein@gmail.com
  • Matthew Evangelista

    Matthew Evangelista

    President White Professor of History and Political Science in the Department of Government at Cornell University
    mae10@cornell.edu
  • Suzanne Fiederlein

    Suzanne Fiederlein

    Interim Director, Center for International Stabilization and Recovery, James Madison University
    fiedersl@jmu.edu
  • Peter Gill

    Peter Gill

    Journalist
    gillpeterm@gmail.com
  • Nassim Majidi

    Nassim Majidi

    Co-Founder and Executive Director, Samuel Hall
    nassim.majidi@samuelhall.org
  • Tanner Mirrlees

    Tanner Mirrlees

    Associate Professor of Communication and Digital Media Studies, Ontario Tech University
    tanner.mirrlees@ontariotechu.ca.
  • Kali Rubaii

    Kali Rubaii

    Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology at Purdue University
    kali.rubaii@gmail.com
  • Zainab Saleh

    Zainab Saleh

    Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Coordinator of Middle East and Islamic Studies, Haverford College
    zsaleh@haverford.edu
  • Sophia Stamatopoulou-Robbins

    Sophia Stamatopoulou-Robbins

    Anthropologist and Film-Maker
    sstamato@bard.edu
  • Image

    Jessica Stern

    Researcher, Hoover Institution, Stanford University
    jessicastern@me.com
  • Thomas H. "Ben" Suitt, III

    Ben Suitt

    PhD, Graduate Program in Religion, Boston University
    bensuitt@bu.edu
  • Image

    Letta Tayler

    Associate Director in the Crisis and Conflict Division of Human Rights Watch
    taylerl@hrw.org
  • Matthew Thomas Payne

    Matthew Thomas Payne

    Associate Professor, University of Notre Dame
    matthewpayne@nd.edu
  • Nick Turse

    Nick Turse

    Fellow of the Type Media Center
    nickturse@gmail.com
  • David Vine

    David Vine

    davidsvine@pm.me
  • Jennifer Walkup Jayes

    Jennifer Walkup Jayes

    jlynnwalkup@gmail.com
  • Zoë Wool

    Zoë Wool

    Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology, University of Toronto, Mississauga
    zoe.wool@utoronto.ca
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