A U.S. Soldier’s Odds of Dying in Historic Wars

According to Nicholas Hobbes’ Essential Militaria, what follows are the odds of death that U.S. soldiers faced in eleven wars throughout history. No one talks much about the Mexican War today, but on a person-by-person basis, it was four times as deadly as Vietnam.

• War of Independence: 2 percent (1 in 50)
• War of 1812: 0.8 percent (1 in 127)
• Indian Wars: 0.9 percent (1 in 106)
• Mexican War: 2.2 percent (1 in 45)
• Civil War: 6.7 percent (1 in 15)
• Spanish-American War: 0.1 percent (1 in 798)
• World War I: 1.1 percent (1 in 89)
• World War II: 1.8 percent (1 in 56)
• Korean War: 0.6 percent (1 in 171)
• Vietnam War: 0.5 percent (1 in 185)
• Persian Gulf War: 0.03 percent (1 in 3,162)

(via Futility Closet | Source)