Casualties of the September 11 attacks included a total of 2,974 fatalities, excluding the 19 hijackers: 246 on the four planes (from which there were no survivors), 2,603 in New York City in the towers and on the ground, and 125 at the Pentagon.12 An additional 24 people remain listed as missing.3 All of the fatalities in the attacks were civilians except for 55 military personnel killed at the Pentagon.4 More than 90 countries lost citizens in the attacks on the World Trade Center.5 In 2007, the New York City medical examiner's office added Felicia Dunn-Jones to the official death toll from the September 11 attacks. Dunn-Jones died five months after 9/11 from a lung condition which was linked to exposure to dust during the collapse of the World Trade Center.6
At the time of the incident, media reports suggested that tens of thousands might have been killed in the attacks, as on any given day upwards of 100,000 people could be inside the towers. Estimates of the number of people in the Twin Towers when attacked on 9/11 range between 14,000 and 19,000. NIST estimated that approximately 17,400 civilians were in the World Trade Center complex at the time of the September 11, 2001 attacks.7 Turnstile counts from the Port Authority indicate that the number of people typically in the Twin Towers by 8:45 a.m. was 14,154.8
Survivors
Only 14 people escaped from the impact zone of the South Tower after it was hit, and only four people from the floors above it. They escaped via Stairwell A, the only stairwell which had been left intact after the impact. No one was able to escape from above the impact zone in the North Tower after it was hit, as all stairwells and elevator shafts on those floors were destroyed. But a small group of people did survive the collapse in the top of the North Tower. After the collapse of the towers, only 23 survivors who were in or below the towers escaped from the debris, including 15 rescue workers. The last survivor was pulled from the rubble 27 hours after the collapse of the towers. A total of 6,294 people were reported to have been treated in area hospitals for injuries related to the 9/11 attacks in New York City.
Fatalities
World Trade Center
An estimated 200 people jumped to their deaths from the burning towers (as depicted in the photograph "The Falling Man"), landing on the streets and rooftops of adjacent buildings hundreds of feet below.9 To witnesses watching, a few of the people falling from the towers seemed to have stumbled out of broken windows.10 Some of the occupants of each tower above its point of impact made their way upward toward the roof in hope of helicopter rescue, however; no rescue plan existed for such an eventuality, the roof access doors were locked and thick smoke and intense heat would have prevented rescue helicopters from landing.11
Cantor Fitzgerald L.P., an investment bank on the 101st–105th floors of One World Trade Center, lost 658 employees, considerably more than any other employer. Marsh Inc., located immediately below Cantor Fitzgerald on floors 93–101 (the location of Flight 11's impact), lost 295 employees, including one on Flight 175. Additionally, Marsh lost 38 consultants. Risk Waters was holding a conference in Windows on the World at the time, with 81 people in attendance.1213
The average age of all the dead in New York City was 40.16 The dead included 8 children: 5 on American 77 ranging in age from 3 to 11, 3 on United 175 ages 2, 3, and 4.17 The youngest victim was a 2 year-old child on Flight 175, the oldest an 82 year-old passenger on Flight 11. In the buildings, the youngest victim was 17 and the oldest was 79.18
Pentagon
All of the fatalities were civilians except 55 military personnel of the 125 victims in the Pentagon.19
Flight 93
Somerset County coroner Wally Miller directed operations at the Flight 93 crash site in Pennsylvania.
1366 people died who were at or above the floors of impact in the North Tower (1 WTC); according to the Commission Report, hundreds were killed instantly by the impact while the rest were trapped and died after the tower collapsed (though a select few were pulled from the rubble).23
As many as 600 people were killed instantly or trapped at or above the floors of impact in the South Tower (2 WTC). Only about 18 managed to escape in time from above and in the impact zone and out of the South Tower before it collapsed.
Of those who worked below the impact zones, only 110 were among those killed in the attacks. The 9/11 Commission notes that this fact strongly indicates that evacuation below the impact zones was a success, allowing most to safely evacuate before the collapse of the World Trade Center.24
1. Excludes the 19 perpetrators and at least some cases of dual-citizenship.
Forensic identification
Ultimately, 2,752 death certificates were filed relating to the 9/11 attacks, as of February 2005. Of the these, 1,588 (58%) were forensically identified from recovered physical remains.4142 The Associated Press reported that the city has "about 10,000 unidentified bone and tissue fragments that cannot be matched to the list of the dead."43 Bone fragments were still being found in 2006 as workers prepared the damaged Deutsche Bank Building for demolition.
^ "Remembering the Lost". Timothy J. Maude, Lieutenant General, United States Army. Arlington National Cemetery (September 22, 2001). Retrieved on 2001-04-16.