How Many People Died On The 1st and 2nd Death Star?

I’ve always found it a bit strange how we talk about the Death Stars mostly as giant weapons, but rarely stop to think about the people who were actually on board when they blew up.

Recently, I went down a rabbit hole looking into the official numbers, and the scale of the loss is pretty staggering. Let me walk you through what I found.

The First Death Star: More than a Superweapon

The first Death Star — the one Luke destroyed over Yavin 4 — was a huge space station. It wasn’t just a weapon; it was basically a city in space.

I looked at the official crew numbers and here’s what I found:

• Between 1.18 and 1.2 million crew members were assigned to it.
• The Imperial Navy and Army had about 343,000 personnel there.
• There were also about 26,000 stormtroopers on board.
• On top of that, it had space for 750,000 passengers.

But that’s not all. The full station population was listed as nearly 2 million people of all kinds — officers, engineers, support workers, probably even contractors and laborers.

And since Tarkin refused to evacuate the station during the Battle of Yavin, most of them were still there when the reactor went up. I think it’s safe to say that around 2 million people died when the first Death Star exploded.

The Second Death Star: Even Bigger, Even Worse

Now the second Death Star was even more enormous — 200 km in diameter — and was meant to correct all the flaws of the first. By the time of the Battle of Endor, it wasn’t fully finished, but it was staffed and operational enough to fight.

Here’s what I found about the crew and population:

• Crew: Again between 1.18 and 1.2 million people.
• Imperial Navy and Army forces were listed at about 638,000.
• The station had a full population capacity of about 2.47 million.

And this time, the Empire had made sure the station was fully staffed. The Emperor was on board, after all — they weren’t going to leave it half-empty. Based on that, it looks like about 2.47 million people were killed when the second Death Star exploded.

To Sum Up

I think sometimes we forget that beyond all the big space battles and superlasers, the Death Stars were packed with real people. Sure, a lot of them were serving the Empire — but there were also countless techs, laborers, and folks who probably didn’t have a choice.

When you add it all up:

• First Death Star: about 2 million deaths
• Second Death Star: about 2.47 million deaths

That’s over 4 million lives lost across both stations.

It really adds a new perspective to those battles, doesn’t it? The Rebels had to destroy them — but the cost was enormous either way.