Downloads

All WarCosts data is freely available for download. Use it in your research, journalism, teaching, or projects. We ask for attribution if used in published work: Source: warcosts.org

“Information is the currency of democracy.”

— Thomas Jefferson

📊 Suggested Uses for This Data

  • • Academic research: Cross-reference conflict costs with policy outcomes, economic impacts, or public opinion data
  • • Journalism: Fact-check military spending claims, visualize deployment data, analyze aid flows
  • • Education: Create lesson plans about the economics of war, constitutional authority, or opportunity costs
  • • Data visualization: Build your own charts, maps, and interactive explorations
  • • Policy analysis: Compare military spending to alternative investments, analyze base closure economics
conflicts.json

36 US conflicts with costs, casualties, outcomes, and analysis — every war from 1775 to present.

~25KB

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Key Fields

id— URL-safe slug (e.g., "iraq-war")
name / shortName— Full and abbreviated conflict name
era— Historical era (Founding Era, Cold War, War on Terror, etc.)
type— war, undeclared_war, covert_operation, coup, intervention
startYear / endYear— Conflict dates
costInflationAdjusted— Total cost in 2023 dollars
usCasualties— Object: { deaths, wounded, battleDeaths, missing }
civilianDeaths— Estimated civilian deaths (conservative)
congressionalAuth— Boolean — was Congress asked?
outcome— Victory, Defeat, Treaty/Inconclusive, Ongoing
military-spending.json

Annual US military spending 1940–2024 with percentage of GDP by president.

~3KB

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Key Fields

year— Calendar year
amount— Spending in billions (2023 dollars)
pctGdp— Military spending as percentage of GDP
president— President in office
foreign-aid.json

Top foreign aid recipients since 2001 with annual and cumulative totals.

~2KB

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Key Fields

totalAnnual— Current annual foreign aid budget
totalSince2001— Cumulative since 2001
topRecipients[]— country, totalSince2001, annual2023, type, note
overseas-presence.json

US military bases and troop deployments by country with costs.

~2KB

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Key Fields

totalBases / totalCountries— Aggregate counts
totalOverseasTroops— Total troops stationed abroad
topDeployments[]— country, troops, bases, since, annualCost, note
arms-sales.json

Top US arms sales buyers with totals and context notes.

~2KB

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Key Fields

totalAnnual— Annual arms sales volume
topBuyers[]— country, total, since, note
topContractors[]— company, revenue, note
opportunity-costs.json

What $8 trillion could have bought — 10 examples with unit costs.

~2KB

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Key Fields

warOnTerrorTotal— Total War on Terror cost ($8T)
examples[]— item, unitCost, units, description
stats.json

Aggregate statistics: total conflicts, deaths, costs, spending rates.

~1KB

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Key Fields

totalConflicts— Number of conflicts tracked
totalUSDeaths / totalCivilianDeaths— Cumulative death tolls
totalCostInflationAdjusted— All-time total cost
currentAnnualBudget— FY2024 defense budget
costPerSecond / costPerDay— Spending rates
presidents.json

War costs and deaths by president.

~2KB

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Key Fields

name— President name
conflicts— Array of conflict names
totalCost / totalUSDeaths— Aggregated from conflicts
cost-per-life.json

Cost per US death and per civilian death by conflict.

~2KB

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Key Fields

name / id— Conflict identifier
costPerUSdeath / costPerCivilianDeath— Calculated ratios
usDeaths / civilianDeaths / cost— Raw inputs
jobs-data.json

Jobs created per $1 million by sector (military vs education vs healthcare).

~1KB

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Key Fields

sectorsPerMillion[]— sector, jobs, color
examples[]— Shift amounts with job creation/loss projections

Direct Access

All files are also accessible directly via URL:

https://warcosts.org/data/conflicts.json

Data is updated periodically as new information becomes available. All costs in 2023 USD unless noted.

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