Combat Deaths versus Maternal Deaths, USA, 1900-2019
Calculations by Valerie M. Hudson, August 2021
COMBAT DEATHS were sourced from Wikipedia at
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_military_casualties_of_war
and are given per conflict, rather than per year. However, Wikipedia delimits each conflict to a range of years.
MATERNAL DEATHS PER YEAR:
Note: Maternal Mortality is given as a rate per 100,000 live births. That means that both the maternal mortality rate and the number of live births were necessary to source in order to calculate an estimate of how many women died each year. Because the maternal mortality rate is given per 100,000 births, births must undergo a unit conversion. So, for example, 2.5 million births is converted to 25 100,000 births before multiplying by the MM rate. The basic calculation, then is the MM rate times the number of 100,000 births, yielding the estimate of the actual number of women who died in a given year.
The operational definition of Maternal Mortality Rate is:
"The maternal mortality ratio is the number of women who die from pregnancy-related causes while pregnant or within 42 days of pregnancy termination per 100,000 live births."
1900 850 MMR (MMR from https://ourworldindata.org/measurement-matters-the-decline-of-maternal-mortality
estimate by me is 2.5 million births, so that is 850x25= 21,250 women died
1901 800 estimate by me 2.53 million births, so 800x25.3 = 20,240 women died
1902 740 estimate by me 2.56, so 740x25.6= 18,944
1903 700 estimate by me 2.59, so 18,130
1904 790 estimate by me 2.62, so 20,698
1905 800 estimate by me 2.65, 21,200
1906 710 estimate by me 2.68, 19,028
1907 720 estimate by me 2.71, 19,512
1908 670 estimate by me 2.71, 18,157
1909 700 2.72 million births (Births from https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data-visualization/natality-trends/index.htm 19,040 women died
1910 690 2.77 mill, 19,113
1911 700 2.8 m, 19,600
1912 650 2.84, 18,460
1913 680 2.86, 19,448
1914 710 2.98, 21,158
1915 608 2.96, 17,997
1916 622 2.96, 18,411
1917 662 2.94, 19,463
1918 916 2.95, 27,022
1919 737 2.74, 20,194
1920 799 2.95, 23,571
1921 682 3.05, 20,801
1922 664 2.88, 19,123
1923 665 2.91, 19,352
1924 656 2.98, 19,549
1925 647 2.91, 18,828
1926 656 2.84, 18,630
1927 647 2.8, 18,116
1928 692 2.67, 18,476
1929 695 2.58, 17,931
1930 673 2.62, 17,633
1931 661 2.51, 16,591
1932 633 2.44, 15,445
1933 619 2.31, 14,299
1934 593 2.39, 14,173
1935 582 2.38, 13,852
1936 568 2.35, 13,348
1937 489 2.41, 11,785
1938 435 2.49, 10,832
1939 404 2.47, 9979
1940 376 2.56, 9626
1941 317 2.7, 8559
1942 259 2.99, 7744
1943 245 3.1, 7595
1944 228 2.94, 6703
1945 207 2.85, 5900
1946 157 3.41, 5354
1947 135 3.82, 5157
1948 117 3.64, 4259
1949 90 3.65, 3285
1950 83 3.63, 3013
1951 75 3.82, 2865
1952 68 3.91, 2659
1953 61 3.96, 2416
1954 52.4 4.1, 2148
1955 47 4.1, 1927
1956 40.9 4.21, 1722
1957 41 4.3, 1763
1958 37.6 4.25, 1598
1959 37.4 4.24, 1586
1960 37.1 4.26, 1580
1961 36.9 4.27, 1576
1962 35.2 4.17, 1468
1963 35.8 4.1, 1468
1964 33.3 4.03, 1342
1965 31.6 3.76, 1188
1966 29.1 3.6, 1048
1967 28 3.52, 986
1968 24.5 3.5, 858
1969 22.2 3.6, 799
1970 20.8 3.73, 776
1971 19.7 3.56, 701
1972 17.6 3.26, 574
1973 16.2 3.14, 509
1974 14.2 3.16, 449
1975 13.2 3.14, 414
1976 12.4 3.17, 393
1977 11.4 3.32, 378
1978 10.5 3.33, 350
1979 10.5 3.49, 366
1980 14.1 3.61, 509 (https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00001754.htm#:~:text=In%201983%2C%20this%20group%20established,14.1%20per%20100%2C000%20live%20births.
1981 14.1 (“) 3.63, 512
1982 14.1 (“) 3.68, 519
1983 14.1 (“) 3.64, 513
1984 14.1 (“) 3.67, 517
1985 14.1 (“) 3.76, 530
1986 assume 10 3.75, 375
1987 7.2 (MMR from https://www.cdc.gov/reproductivehealth/maternal-mortality/pregnancy-mortality-surveillance-system.htm?CDC_AA_refVal=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cdc.gov%2Freproductivehealth%2Fmaternalinfanthealth%2Fpregnancy-mortality-surveillance-system.htm 3.81 million births, 274 women died
1988 9.4 3.91, 368
1989 9.8 (CDC) 4.04, 396
1990 10 (CDC) 4.16 (Births from https://www.statista.com/statistics/195908/number-of-births-in-the-united-states-since-1990/ , 416
1991 10.3 (CDC) 4.11, 423
1992 10.8 (CDC) 4.07, 440
1993 11.1 (CDC) 4, 444
1994 12.9 (CDC) 3.95, 510
1995 11.3 (CDC) 3.9, 441
1996 11.3 (CDC) 3.89, 440
1997 12.9 (CDC) 3.88, 501
1998 12 (CDC) 3.94, 473
1999 13.2 (CDC) 3.96, 523
2000 14.5 (CDC) 4.06, 589
2001 14.7 (CDC) 4.03, 592
2002 14.1 (CDC) 4.02, 567
2003 16.8 (CDC) 4.09, 687
2004 15.2 (CDC) 4.11, 625
2005 15.4 (CDC) 4.14, 638
2006 15.7 (CDC) 4.27, 670
2007 14.5 (CDC) 4.32, 626
2008 15.5 (CDC) 4.25, 659
2009 17.8 (CDC) 4.13, 735
2010 16.7 (CDC) 4 million (Births from https://www.statista.com/statistics/195908/number-of-births-in-the-united-states-since-1990/ , 668
2011 17.8 (CDC) 3.95, 703
2012 15.9 (CDC) 3.95, 628
2013 17.3 (CDC) 3.93, 680
2014 18 (CDC) 3.99, 718
2015 17.2 (CDC) 3.98, 685
2016 16.9 (CDC) 3.95, 668
2017 17.3 (CDC) 3.86, 668
2018 17.4 (MMR from CDC: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/maternal-mortality/index.htm 3.79, 659
2019 20.1 (MMR from CDC: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hestat/maternal-mortality-2021/E-Stat-Maternal-Mortality-Rates-H.pdf 3.75, 754
Summary Calculations
1900-1946: Estimated 780,860 women died in childbirth
Combat deaths: 345,413
1900-1953: Estimated 804,514 women died in childbirth
Combat deaths: 379,114
1947-1999: Estimated 60,745 women died in childbirth
Combat deaths: 81,796
1954-1999: Estimated 37,091 women died in childbirth
Combat deaths: 48,095
2000-2015: Estimated: 10,470 women died in childbirth
Combat deaths: 5669
2000-2019: Estimated: 13,219 women died in childbirth
Combat deaths: 5686
1900-2019: Estimated 854,824 women died in childbirth
Combat deaths: 432,895