Having a good war
July 25, 2011 2 Comments
I was at a lecture at LSE today where this data was presented on a slide:
The GDP setback lists the equivalent earlier year that each country’s GDP had been reduced to by 1946. I was surprised that not only had the UK’s GDP actually risen over the course of the war, but at how few deaths there were. Estimates of number of WW2 dead vary widely, and I think the number given in their table is just for military deaths. But even adding in civilian deaths, less than 1% of the UK population were killed in a war in which 50+ million died.
Marc Gawley 
I would think that the UK benefited from the fact that it was never invaded like the bulk of the other countries. Since it was a major staging area for the allies it did see a lot of economic benefit, just as the US did.
That is surprising. I though there were more casualties. Of course all any death is a tragedy but this was surprising.