Mortality of US Troops in the Iraq War, 2003-2006

In this video and in my corresponding senior thesis, I assess US troops’ risk of death in the Iraq War. Using information from the Department of Defense about troop deployments and deaths, I construct crude death rates and relative mortality rates for US military personnel who have participated in Operation Iraqi Freedom. To illustrate the magnitude of risk faced by US troops in Iraq, I compare these mortality rates to each other and to death rates in society at large. The data show that risk of death among military personnel in the Iraq War varies according to certain characteristics of the armed forces and individual factors such as one’s military branch, rank, age, sex, race, ethnicity, home state, political ideology, socioeconomic status, and level of education.