British dead and wounded in Afghanistan, month by month

The total number of British troop fatalities during the conflict now stands at 453, 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 July the MoD released the latest quarterly numbers on amputations. Between October 2001 and March 2014, 145 service personnel serving in Afghanistan suffered amputations. A further 15 in Iraq and 26 in other areas suffered amputations.

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:

'"Very Seriously ill/ Injured/wounded" or VSI is the definition we use where the illness or injury is of such severity that life or reason is imminently endangered. "Seriously ill/Injured/Wounded" or SI is the definition we use where the patient's condition is of such severity that there is cause for immediate concern, but there is no imminent danger to life or reason. The VSI and SI categories are defined by Joint Casualty and Compassionate Policy and Procedures. They are not strictly medical categories but are designed to give an indication of the severity of the illness to inform what the individual's next of kin are told.'

What do you think? Can you do anything with the data?

Data summary

British troops wounded in Afghanistan
ANNUAL FIGURES	Total combat field hospital admissions	Field hospital admissions, wounded in action	Total serious casualties in action (recorded by NOTICAS)	Of total, number of most seriously injured or wounded	Evacuated by air - all causes, combat and non-combat
2006	240	85	31	18	262
2007	832	234	63	23	572
2008	1,008	235	65	27	800
2009	1,229	508	157	82	1,313
2010	1,262	518	154	80	1,225
2011	921	274	69	34	1,147
2012	952	222	44	23	1,121
2013	742	95	17	10	613
2014	250	17	6	3	314
TOTAL (since 2001)	7,436	2,188	616	310	7,367
Source: MoD