In 1945, the final year of WWII, an estimated 12.2 million Americans served in the military, up from only about 334,500 in 1939, the year the war began with Germany’s invasion of Poland. The mass military mobilization – including both draftees and volunteers – was the largest in U.S. history and drew thousands of men and women from all 48 states, as well as Alaska and Hawaii, neither of which had been granted statehood at the time of the war.
Against a population of 2,363,516 at the time, according to records from the 1940 census, this means that about 4.5% of Louisiana’s entire population enlisted during WWII, the 13th smallest share among states.
All state-level enlistment data is fromĀ The National Archives. State residents who enlisted in the U.S. Navy or Marine Corps were not considered. About 13% of records could not be scanned and are missing from the database. To account for this shortfall, we added 13% to the number of each state’s reported enlistees to calculate our final estimates.
Rank | State | Est. Army enlistment in WWII | Share of 1940 pop. who enlisted (%) | Total casualties from state |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | New York | 1,052,268 | 7.8 | 31,215 |
2 | Pennsylvania | 583,132 | 5.9 | 26,554 |
3 | California | 579,052 | 8.4 | 17,022 |
4 | Ohio | 492,735 | 7.1 | 16,828 |
5 | Texas | 452,159 | 7.0 | 15,764 |
6 | Massachusetts | 342,401 | 7.9 | 10,033 |
7 | New Jersey | 324,956 | 7.8 | 10,372 |
8 | Illinois | 304,303 | 3.9 | 18,601 |
9 | North Carolina | 261,613 | 7.3 | 7,109 |
10 | Tennessee | 238,039 | 8.2 | 6,528 |
11 | Georgia | 229,174 | 7.3 | 5,701 |
12 | Indiana | 222,436 | 6.5 | 8,131 |
13 | Alabama | 209,261 | 7.4 | 5,114 |
14 | Missouri | 206,252 | 5.4 | 8,003 |
15 | Michigan | 180,139 | 3.4 | 12,885 |
16 | Kentucky | 174,612 | 6.1 | 6,802 |
17 | Mississippi | 168,744 | 7.7 | 3,555 |
18 | Connecticut | 163,462 | 9.6 | 4,347 |
19 | Oklahoma | 154,411 | 6.6 | 5,474 |
20 | Virginia | 153,089 | 5.7 | 6,007 |
21 | Wisconsin | 152,498 | 4.9 | 7,038 |
22 | Florida | 144,839 | 7.6 | 3,540 |
23 | South Carolina | 129,788 | 6.8 | 3,423 |
24 | West Virginia | 125,551 | 6.6 | 4,865 |
25 | Washington | 124,995 | 7.2 | 3,941 |
26 | Iowa | 109,591 | 4.3 | 5,633 |
27 | Louisiana | 107,099 | 4.5 | 3,964 |
28 | Maryland | 95,469 | 5.2 | 4,375 |
29 | Minnesota | 92,990 | 3.3 | 6,462 |
30 | Oregon | 84,565 | 7.8 | 2,835 |
31 | Arkansas | 83,379 | 4.3 | 3,814 |
32 | Maine | 72,361 | 8.5 | 2,156 |
33 | Kansas | 70,897 | 3.9 | 4,526 |
34 | Rhode Island | 64,256 | 9.0 | 1,669 |
35 | Colorado | 51,509 | 4.6 | 2,697 |
36 | Utah | 46,205 | 8.4 | 1,450 |
37 | Montana | 43,844 | 7.8 | 1,553 |
38 | New Hampshire | 41,752 | 8.5 | 1,203 |
39 | Idaho | 41,152 | 7.8 | 1,419 |
40 | Nebraska | 40,553 | 3.1 | 2,976 |
41 | New Mexico | 39,005 | 7.3 | 2,032 |
42 | Arizona | 34,399 | 6.9 | 1,613 |
43 | Vermont | 27,144 | 7.6 | 874 |
44 | North Dakota | 20,635 | 3.2 | 1,626 |
45 | South Dakota | 20,598 | 3.2 | 1,426 |
46 | Delaware | 20,154 | 7.6 | 579 |
47 | Hawaii | 15,965 | 3.8 | 689 |
48 | Nevada | 11,784 | 10.7 | 349 |
49 | Wyoming | 11,342 | 4.5 | 652 |
50 | Alaska | 2,068 | 2.9 | 91 |