Iran War Costs: Thousands Dead and Billions Lost

The human toll and economic costs mounted rapidly after the United States and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28.

Point Summary

· The U.S.-Israel war against Iran lasted over 15 weeks before a preliminary peace agreement was reached.

· Around 3,500 Iranians, 26 Israelis, and 13 U.S. military personnel were killed during the conflict.

· About 3,700 people in Lebanon also died as fighting spread across the region.

· Thousands more were injured, and civilians from several countries were affected.

· The war’s total cost to the United States is estimated at $132 billion, including military expenses and economic impacts.

· U.S. military operations alone reportedly cost around $29 billion, excluding repairs to damaged bases and equipment.

· Iran suffered severe economic damage, with rising prices, shortages, and destruction of schools and healthcare facilities.

· Fuel prices increased sharply, costing American households an estimated $460 extra on average.

· Oil prices surged due to disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz, affecting global energy markets.

· Higher fuel costs increased transportation, airline, and commodity prices worldwide.

· Global fertilizer and food prices also rose because of trade disruptions and supply-chain problems.

· Experts warn that the conflict's economic effects could lead to higher inflation, slower growth, and increased food insecurity around the world.

[ABS News Service/20.06.2026]

The war against Iran lasted just over 15 weeks before a preliminary U.S.-Iranian peace deal was reached this week. But the human and economic toll mounted rapidly, with consequences far beyond the region.

Facing pressure at home and abroad, President Trump announced on Monday that he and Vice President JD Vance had electronically signed a document the previous day with the Iranians formally ending the war. The conflict began on Feb. 28 when the United States and Israel attacked Iran.

On Wednesday, the president signed the agreement again in France at the Palace of Versailles, where an ill-fated treaty was concluded to end World War I more than a century ago.

The costs of the war to the United States, estimated at $132 billion overall, are still being tallied as a 60-day period for further negotiations begins. Here is what we know.

Death Toll

About 3,500 Iranians have been killed in the war, according to an Iranian government agency. Israel says 26 Israelis have been killed. Thousands of people in both countries have been injured.

The U.S. military says 13 of its members have been killed.

Israel renewed attacks on Lebanon on March 18 as part of the wider war, and about 3,700 people have been killed there, according to Lebanon’s health ministry.

Strikes, mainly by Iran, have also killed people across the Middle East, including workers from South Asian countries in the Persian Gulf.

The U.S. military killed three Indian civilian sailors in a strike on a commercial ship near Oman, raising tensions between the United States and India.

In the deadliest known civilian casualty incident, a U.S. missile strike demolished an Iranian school, killing at least 175 people on the first day of the war, according to Iranian officials.

Financial Costs

Iran’s economy was already deeply troubled before the war. But now it is in free fall. Prices for food and other basic goods have surged, and daily life is a struggle.

The scale of devastation has been great, with hundreds of schools and health care facilities damaged or destroyed in the war, according to the Iranian Red Crescent Society, the country’s primary humanitarian relief organization.

For U.S. taxpayers and consumers, the cost of the war is at least $132 billion, according to Moody’s Analytics. That factors in military spending, rising energy and commodity prices and interest rates, said Mark Zandi, the company’s chief economist.

A top Pentagon official told Congress last month that the cost had risen to around $29 billion for the military. That estimate did not include the price of repairing about a dozen U.S. bases in the region damaged by Iranian attacks.

The costs of repair and maintenance, as well as keeping carrier strike groups at sea, also need to be factored in. “It costs a lot of money to just keep everyone and all this apparatus deployed there,” said Linda Bilmes, a public finance expert and senior lecturer at the Harvard Kennedy School. She added that the replacement costs of the enormous number of munitions that the U.S. military has expended will be much higher than the original purchasing costs.

Iran also severely damaged other U.S. assets in the region, including a valuable military radar jet on a tarmac in Saudi Arabia and the U.S. Embassy compound in Riyadh.

Energy Prices

Americans have paid roughly $60 billion more for gasoline and diesel since the conflict began as a result of higher prices, according to an Iran War Energy Cost Tracker from Brown University. That’s about an extra $460 per household. That number is still rising.

When the United States and Israel started the war with Iran, Americans were paying, on average, $2.98 a gallon at the pump, according to AAA, a non-profit organization of motor clubs.

Since then, gasoline prices have spiked regularly and are now around $4 a gallon.

Oil prices surged when the Iranian military attacked some commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz, a vital passageway to and from the energy producers of the Middle East. That effectively shut down the strait and disrupted the global flow of petroleum. Crude oil is the main ingredient for gasoline.

The global benchmark for crude oil has dropped since a peace agreement framework was announced on Monday. It is currently near $80 a barrel. At one point in March, prices climbed to around $120 a barrel.

Those high fuel prices have trickled down the chain and inflated many other costs tied to fuel, like airline fares and the transportation of commodities and manufactured goods.

Fertilizer and Food

Disruptions to global trade from the closure of the Strait of Hormuz have led to rising prices of commodities such as sulfur, a key ingredient of certain fertilizers.

A Council on Foreign Relations report earlier this month by Máximo Torero Cullen, the chief economist of the Food and Agriculture Organization, said the disruptions in the strait would have consequences that “extend well beyond agriculture, threatening higher food prices, higher food inflation, reduced economic growth and increased hunger worldwide.”