British dead and wounded in Afghanistan, month by month

Off By Sharon Black

What is the human cost of the war in Afghanistan for British forces? As British troop deaths reach 444, these are the latest figures – including the most recent wounded and amputation statistics
• Get the data
• Amputation statistics explainer
• Afghanistan civilian casualties
• Interactive guide

With the latest deaths caused by the war in Afghanistan, the total number of British troop fatalities during the conflict now stands at 444.

The number of British deaths in Afghanistan is now much higher than Iraq and even the Falklands conflict.

2009 was the bloodiest year for British troops in Afghanistan. 2010 nearly caught up. But in 2011, with the deployment of US troops to Helmand, things quietened down.

In April the MoD released the latest annual numbers on amputations. 29 UK troops serving in Afghanistan had limbs amputated between April 2012 and March 2013, 12 of them significant multiple amputees.

This is a significant reduction from 2011/12, when 46 service personnel suffered amputations, continuing a downward trend from 2010/11, when there were 75 amputations. According to the latest data, the figure is still falling, with fewer than five troops suffering amputations in the previous quarter (to June).

These are the numbers of British fatalities for Afghanistan – and Iraq, too – updated as they change.

We’ve broken Afghanistan down month by month.

Research has found that the rate at which British soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan is almost four times that of their US counterparts, and double the rate which is officially classified as “major combat”.

Analysis by the Medical Research Council’s biostatistics unit at the University of Cambridge also found that the death rate of UK troops is twice that of 2006, when they were described as being involved in the fiercest fighting since their involvement in Korea 50 years ago.

The researchers said the “UK could expect at least as many military fatalities in 10 weeks in Afghanistan as in 20 weeks in 2006”.

The official classification of “major combat” is a killing rate of six per 1,000 personnel years. For the 12 months up to May, the killing rate for British troops in Afghanistan stood at 13.

More complicated are the wounded numbers. Rather than one simple set of statistics, the MoD gives us three – all of which are included as a sheet in the dataset below (and summarised down the page).

• Firstly, you have the Noticas numbers. These are the most seriously wounded cases, where the family has been informed the wounded person has been “listed”
• Then there are the people registered at field hospitals – which go from the seriously to the lightly wounded, from all causes, violent and otherwise
• Lastly there are the personnel who’ve been evacuated by air, which could be serious combat injuries or illnesses such as dysentry

This is how the MoD defines it: