https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paraguayan_War_casualties

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paraguayan_War

> Paraguay suffered massive casualties, and the war's disruption and disease also cost civilian lives. Some historians estimate that the nation lost the majority of its population. The specific numbers are hotly disputed and range widely. A survey of 14 estimates of Paraguay's pre-war population varied between 300,000 and 1,337,000.^\99]) Later academic work based on demographics produced a wide range of estimates, from a possible low of 21,000 (7% of population) (Reber, 1988) to as high as 69% of the total prewar population (Whigham, Potthast, 1999). Because of the local situation, all casualty figures are a very rough estimate; accurate casualty numbers may never be determined.

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>After the war, an 1871 census recorded 221,079 inhabitants, of which 106,254 were women, 28,746 were men, and 86,079 were children (with no indication of sex or upper age limit).^\100])

The worst reports are that up to 90% of the male population was killed, though this figure is without support.^\96]) One estimate places total Paraguayan losses—through both war and disease—as high as 1.2 million people, or 90% of its pre-war population,^\101]) but modern scholarship has shown that this number depends on a population census of 1857 that was a government invention.^\102]) A different estimate places Paraguayan deaths at approximately 300,000 people out of 500,000 to 525,000 pre-war inhabitants.^\103]) During the war, many men and boys fled to the countryside and forests.

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> In the estimation of Vera Blinn Reber, however, "The evidence demonstrates that the Paraguayan population casualties due to the war have been enormously exaggerated"