Iraq Casualty Rates, State By State

Out of curiousity, I calculated the per-capita losses in Iraq for each state.  That is, the number of soldiers killed as a function of the total population of the state.  

For the majority of the states the casualty rate is pretty even, varying by a factor of about 2.  There are some particularly fortunate states, and a few whose soldiers have not been so lucky.  

Overall average:  2.92 killed in action / 1,000,000 population

Largest Burden:     Vermont   14.8 / million

Smallest Burden:    Hawaii     0.8 / million

FULL LIST (PDF FILE)

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Ten highest casualty rate states

Vermont              14.78
North Dakota      9.34
Wyoming              8.10
South Dakota      7.95
Delaware          7.66
Nebraska          6.43
Oregon              4.97
Rhode Island      4.77
Maine             4.71
Mississippi       4.57

Ten lowest

Ohio            2.20
Louisiana       2.01
New York        1.84
Minnesota       1.83
Utah            1.79
Maryland        1.70
New Mexico      1.65
Alaska          1.60
Nevada          1.00
Hawaii          0.83

Blue States:   2.79 KIA / 1,000,000

Red States:    3.06 KIA / million

There is some room for error in the iCasualties numbers.  They report 17 KIA for Oregon, for example, but the local media all report 25 Oregon deaths.  Could be because the DoD reports hometown in a strict sense, but local media might be counting people who moved recently but had lived in OR for years, or recent non-resident grads from OR colleges, etc.  Those sorts of issues are enough to significantly change rankings of small states (e.g., Oregon would move from #7 to #4).