Although no exact tally of expelled Germans exists, the following figures represent a rough estimation of their numbers using various census and rationing records, with help from the Zentrum Gegen Vertreibungen:

Konrad Adenauer, first Chancellor of West Germany, estimated that of the some 13 million ethnic Germans left outside of Occupied Germany by the 1945 borders, only 7.3 million ever returned:

"According to American estimates, some 13.8 million Germans were expelled from Eastern Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, etc.  7.8 million arrived in the eastern and western zones.  6 millions Germans disappeared from the face of the Earth.  They are dead and gone . . .  A large number of able-bodied men and women were taken to Russia.  The expulsion of these 13-14 million people from their homes, home which their forefathers had inhabited for centuries, has inflicted unending suffering . . . the expulsions began with the Potsdam Agreement of August 2, 1945.  I am convinced that history will judge this document harshly" (Konrad Adenauer, "Erinnerungen 1945 – 1953," DVA, Stuttgart, 1965, S. 186).

Novelist and historical writer James Bacque,  compiled one compelling study on subject.  Crimes and Mercies, although by no means definitive, points to the work yet to be done.  Using raw census data, Bacque has sought to estimate the actual human costs on Germany in the period of 1946-1950.