Definitive Reference
America's Wars By The Numbers
A Complete Statistical Breakdown
Every US military conflict from the Revolutionary War to Iran 2026, ranked by cost, casualties, and duration. 36 conflicts. $11.5T spent. 1,049,469 American lives lost.
Summary — 250 Years of American War
Total Conflicts
Total Cost (2023 $)
US Deaths
Civilian Deaths
US Wounded
Timespan
Spending by Conflict (Inflation-Adjusted, $B)
US Deaths by Conflict
Complete Wars Table
All 36 conflicts, sorted by date. Costs in 2023 inflation-adjusted dollars.
| Conflict | Years | Duration | Cost (2023$) | US Deaths | Civilian Deaths | Cost/US Death |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revolutionary War | 1775–1783 | 8y | $2.4B | 25,000 | – | $96K |
| Quasi-War | 1798–1800 | 2y | $160M | 514 | – | $311K |
| Barbary War | 1801–1805 | 4y | $80M | 35 | – | $2.3M |
| War of 1812 | 1812–1815 | 3y | $1.8B | 15,000 | – | $120K |
| Mexican-American War | 1846–1848 | 2y | $2.5B | 13,283 | 25,000 | $188K |
| Civil War | 1861–1865 | 4y | $80B | 364,511 | 50,000 | $219K |
| Spanish-American War | 1898–1898 | 1y | $9.6B | 2,446 | – | $3.9M |
| Philippine War | 1899–1902 | 3y | $14B | 4,196 | 250,000 | $3.3M |
| World War I | 1917–1918 | 1y | $380B | 116,516 | 6,500,000 | $3.3M |
| World War II | 1941–1945 | 4y | $4.8T | 405,399 | 50,000,000 | $11.8M |
| Korean War | 1950–1953 | 3y | $389B | 36,574 | 2,000,000 | $10.6M |
| Iran Coup | 1953–1953 | 1y | $11M | – | 300 | – |
| Guatemala Coup | 1954–1954 | 1y | $33M | – | 200,000 | – |
| Vietnam War | 1955–1975 | 20y | $1T | 58,220 | 2,000,000 | $17.2M |
| Bay of Pigs | 1961–1961 | 1y | $460M | 4 | 176 | $115M |
| Dominican Republic | 1965–1966 | 1y | $2.8B | 44 | 3,000 | $63.6M |
| Chile Coup | 1970–1973 | 3y | $80M | – | 3,200 | – |
| Grenada | 1983–1983 | 1y | $400M | 19 | 24 | $21.1M |
| Panama | 1989–1990 | 1y | $400M | 23 | 500 | $17.4M |
| Gulf War | 1990–1991 | 1y | $136B | 383 | 3,500 | $355.1M |
| Somalia | 1992–1994 | 2y | $3.3B | 43 | 1,000 | $76.7M |
| Bosnia | 1995–2004 | 9y | $35B | 12 | 500 | $2.9B |
| Kosovo | 1998–1999 | 1y | $10B | 2 | 500 | $5B |
| Afghanistan | 2001–2021 | 20y | $2.3T | 2,461 | 176,000 | $934.6M |
| GWOT (Other) | 2001–present | 25y | $60B | 50 | 500 | $1.2B |
| Iraq War | 2003–2011 | 8y | $2T | 4,599 | 300,000 | $434.9M |
| Drone Wars | 2004–present | 22y | $30B | – | 22,000 | – |
| Somalia (AFRICOM) | 2007–present | 19y | $4.5B | 8 | 150 | $562.5M |
| Libya | 2011–2011 | 1y | $1.5B | – | 30,000 | – |
| Niger/Sahel | 2013–2024 | 11y | $600M | 4 | – | $150M |
| Syria | 2014–2025 | 11y | $30B | 22 | 12,000 | $1.4B |
| Anti-ISIS | 2014–present | 12y | $115B | 93 | 13,000 | $1.2B |
| Yemen | 2015–2025 | 10y | $10B | 2 | 150,000 | $5B |
| Ukraine Aid | 2022–present | 4y | $66.9B | – | – | – |
| Red Sea (Houthis) | 2023–2025 | 2y | $4.6B | – | 30 | – |
| Iran 2026 | 2026–present | 1y | $2B | 6 | 1,000 | – |
🏆 Most Expensive Wars
💀 Deadliest Wars (US Deaths)
⏱️ Longest Wars
💰 Highest Cost Per US Death
How much each American life “cost” in inflation-adjusted dollars — a grim measure of the rising price of war.
Key Patterns in the Data
Wars Are Getting More Expensive, Not Less
The cost per American death has risen from approximately $96,000 in the Revolutionary War to over $935 million in Afghanistan — a nearly 10,000× increase even after adjusting for inflation. Modern wars cost exponentially more per casualty because of precision-guided munitions, advanced logistics, force protection, and the long tail of veteran care. We spend more per death but achieve less per dollar.
The Civil War Remains the Deadliest
With over 620,000 American deaths, the Civil War killed more Americans than all other US wars combined through Vietnam. It remains the only US conflict where American casualties exceeded 2% of the total population. To match that ratio today would require over 6.6 million deaths.
Post-9/11 Wars: Maximum Cost, Minimal Result
The post-9/11 wars (Afghanistan, Iraq, and related operations) represent the most expensive sustained military campaign in US history at over $8 trillion. Yet they achieved arguably the least: Afghanistan is back under Taliban control, Iraq is destabilized and Iranian-influenced, ISIS emerged from the chaos, and the global terrorist threat has dispersed rather than diminished.
Civilian Deaths Dwarf Military Deaths in Modern Wars
In World War I, civilians accounted for roughly 10% of deaths. By World War II, it was approximately 50%. In the post-9/11 wars, civilian deaths outnumber US military deaths by ratios of 100:1 or more. The Korean War killed an estimated 2–3 million Korean civilians. The Vietnam War killed an estimated 2 million Vietnamese civilians. Modern “precision” warfare has not solved the civilian casualty problem — it has merely made it less visible to Americans.
Methodology
All cost figures are adjusted to 2023 dollars using the CPI-U index. US casualty figures are from the Department of Defense, Congressional Research Service, and the National Archives. Civilian casualty estimates draw from the Watson Institute at Brown University, the Iraq Body Count project, and academic studies. Where ranges exist, we use conservative (lower-bound) estimates. Duration is calculated from the first year of US military involvement to the last year of significant operations.
Data source: WarCosts Conflicts Database — our comprehensive dataset of all US military conflicts, available for download.