The American Revolution Statistics

The American Revolution Statistics

By the Numbers

Great Britain vs. The Colonies

British national debt in 1755: £72,289,67342
British national debt in 1763: £122,603,33643
British national debt in 1764: £129,586,789 (This was money that the British government borrowed from banks and investors, and it would be the equivalent of tens of trillions of dollars today.)44

Value of annual British imports to the North American colonies in the 1720s: just under £200,00045
Value of annual British imports to the North American colonies in the 1770s: nearly £885,00046

Average annual increase in the gross national product (GNP) of British North America between 1650 and 1770: 2.7%47
Total number of times the gross national product (GNP) of British North America multiplied between 1650 and 1770: 2548

Number of regular troops the British maintained in North America after the French and Indian War: 10,00049
Annual cost for maintaining those troops: over £200,00050

Average annual amount that royal customs collectors amassed in 1763, when George Grenville took office as Lord of the Treasury: £1,80051

British America's most valuable exports in the early 1770s, in order of total value: sugar, tobacco, wheat, rice52
Number of newspapers in the American colonies at the outbreak of the Revolution: 37 (most were weeklies)53

The Colonies and Slavery

Number of Baptist churches in Virginia in 1769: 754
Number of Baptist churches in Virginia in 1774: 5455

Enslaved portion of Virginia's population in 1700: 9%56
Enslaved portion of Virginia's population in 1775: 40% (186,000 people)57
Year that Virginia's slave population began increasing naturally: 173061

Enslaved portion of New York's population in 1775: 14% (over 26,000 people)58
Enslaved portion of Connecticut's population in 1775: 8% (over 15,000 people)59
Enslaved portion of Rhode Island's population in 1775: 6% (over 3,000 people)60

White population of the British colonies in North America in 1770: 1,696,25462
Black population of the British colonies in North America in 1770: 468,82263
Estimated portion of the 2.5 million colonists during the Revolutionary War period who were Black: 20% (about 500,000 men, women, and children)64

The Revolution: America's Side

Number of Americans who remained loyal to Britain during the Revolution: as many as 500,000 (20% of white Americans)65

Length of standard colonial flintlock musket used by American militia: 5 feet66
Weight of standard colonial flintlock musket used by American militia: about 10 pounds67
Ammunition of standard colonial flintlock musket used by American militia: lead balls weighing about an ounce, fired in a single shot68

First large sum entered in George Washington's account book during the war: $333.33 (a large amount of money at the time), to pay an anonymous spy to go into Boston and gain intelligence on the British army's plans.69

Total population of the British colonies in North America in 1770: 2,165,07670
Population of London alone around 1775: almost 1 million71

Number of military engagements in the Revolutionary War: 1,54672

Age of some of the youngest members of the Continental Army: 10 (e.g. Israel Trask, son of a Lieutenant who volunteered and served as a cook's helper and messenger)73

Age of some of the oldest members of the Continental Army: 57 (e.g. the very popular General Israel Putnam)74

Monthly salary for teenaged fifers and drummers in the Continental Army (over 500 of whom served during the Revolutionary War): $875

The End of the War

Total American battle casualties in the Revolutionary War: 6,824 (estimates range between this figure and 4,435; some 90% of them came from the Continental Army)76
Ratio of American deaths to the free white male population (aged 16 to 45) who served in the war: 1 in 20 (This would be the equivalent of about 3 million people today.)77

Total Americans wounded in the Revolutionary War: 8,44578
Total American deaths from disease in the Revolutionary War: 10,000 (approximation)79
Total Americans who died in British prisons in the Revolutionary War: 8,50080
Total Americans captured in the Revolutionary War: 18,15281

Total British casualties from battle and disease in the Revolutionary War: around 24,00082