Tag Archives: history

Number of Deaths in World War II

This visualization found in Wikimedia.org, shows World War II casualties per country by number and percentage of population, as well as the percentage of military and civilian deaths for the Allied and the Axis Powers.

The countries with the largest number of casualties were the Soviet Union, China, Germany, Poland, and Indonesia. As a percentage of the population, the nations with the  largest number of casualties were Lithuania, Poland, Latvia, Germany, and the Soviet Union.

For the Allied forces, the heaviest casualties were inflicted on the civilian population, whereas the largest number of casualties for the Axis forces were inflicted on the military.

 

Laconic History of the World

Laconic history of the World

Martin Elmer created the fantastically entertaining world map shown above using Wikipedia. Each country in the map is represented by the most frequently used word in every Wikipedia article entitled “History of ___”. The results are somewhat predictable in many cases, as in having the word Soviet as the most common word in the History of Russia article (172 occurrences as of today), or the word Kim in the History of North Korea article (68 occurrences). Other results are perhaps a little bit less predictable, and yet they still make a lot of sense for those familiar with the history of each nation. Zoom in on Europe and you’ll quickly realize that War is the most frequent word for almost all countries in Western Europe. Which is the most common word in the corresponding article for your country?