The graph illustrates the number of personnel in each branch of the U.S. Military for the year 2024. The x-axis lists the military branches: Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, Space Force, and Coast Guard. The y-axis represents the number of personnel, ranging from 9,446 to 449,816. Among the branches, the Army has the highest number of personnel with 449,816, followed by the Navy with 332,336 and the Air Force with 315,958. The Marine Corps and Coast Guard have 173,096 and 40,612 personnel, respectively, while the Space Force has the lowest number at 9,446. The data is displayed in a bar graph format, effectively highlighting the distribution of military personnel across the different branches.

The U.S. Army remains the largest branch of the American military, with 449,344 active duty personnel in 2023. While the Army leads in numbers, the newly established Space Force had just 8,879 active duty members, highlighting the evolving nature of modern warfare and the increasing importance of space-based capabilities. Confidence in military remains high Despite fluctuations in force size, public trust in the U.S. military remains strong. In 2024, 61 percent of Americans expressed a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in the armed forces, a slight increase from the previous year. While a slightly higher share of Republicans have shown more confidence in the military, trust in the institution remains high across party lines. Global commitments The United States continues to invest heavily in its military capabilities, with defense spending reaching 916.02 billion U.S. dollars in 2023. This substantial budget supports not only domestic defense needs but also enables the U.S. to respond to global crises, as evidenced by the over 40 billion euros in military aid provided to Ukraine following Russia's invasion. The high level of spending, which translates to about 2,220 U.S. dollars per capita.

In the United States, active duty Armed Forces personnel tended to be young, with the majority under the age of 30 years old. In 2023, there were 546,361 U.S. Defense Armed personnel aged 25 and under. In the age group 26 to 30, there were 275,756 Armed Forces personnel.

Armed forces personnel are active duty military personnel, including paramilitary forces if the training, organization, equipment, and control suggest they may be used to support or replace regular military forces.

In 2023, there were around 1.11 million active duty U.S. Armed Forces personnel stationed within the United States. In that year, there were 156,418 U.S. Armed Forces personnel stationed in California, the most of any state.

In the fiscal year of 2019, 21.39 percent of active-duty enlisted women were of Hispanic origin. The total number of active duty military personnel in 2019 amounted to 1.3 million people.

Ethnicities in the United States The United States is known around the world for the diversity of its population. The Census recognizes six different racial and ethnic categories: White American, Native American and Alaska Native, Asian American, Black or African American, Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander. People of Hispanic or Latino origin are classified as a racially diverse ethnicity.

The largest part of the population, about 61.3 percent, is composed of White Americans. The largest minority in the country are Hispanics with a share of 17.8 percent of the population, followed by Black or African Americans with 13.3 percent. Life in the U.S. and ethnicity However, life in the United States seems to be rather different depending on the race or ethnicity that you belong to. For instance: In 2019, native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders had the highest birth rate of 58 per 1,000 women, while the birth rae of white alone, non Hispanic women was 49 children per 1,000 women.

The Black population living in the United States has the highest poverty rate with of all Census races and ethnicities in the United States. About 19.5 percent of the Black population was living with an income lower than the 2020 poverty threshold. The Asian population has the smallest poverty rate in the United States, with about 8.1 percent living in poverty.

The median annual family income in the United States in 2020 earned by Black families was about 57,476 U.S. dollars, while the average family income earned by the Asian population was about 109,448 U.S. dollars. This is more than 25,000 U.S. dollars higher than the U.S. average family income, which was 84,008 U.S. dollars.

Throughout the 19th century, the share of military personnel employed by the United States government was below 0.2 percent of the total population in most years. There were noticeable spikes in enlistments and conscriptions during the American Civil War (1861-65), the First World War (1917-18*), and Second World War (1941-45*), as well as smaller increases during the Mexican-American War (1946-48) and the Spanish-American War (1898), but figures were generally much lower than the post-WWII era.

Following the Second World War, the United States abandoned many of its isolationist positions as it sought to become the world's leading superpower. This involved stationing millions of troops in overseas bases during the Cold War, in strategically important locations such as West Germany, Japan, and Taiwan. Additionally, involvement in conflicts such as the Korean War (1950-1953) and Vietnam War (1964-1973*) kept military employment high, usually between 1-2 percent until the 1970s. Figures remained just below the one percent mark until the 1990s, when the end of the Cold War and the growing influence of technology in conventional warfare saw a decrease in demand for many traditional combat roles. Despite U.S. involvement in a number of overseas conflicts in the 21st century, military personnel represented less than 0.5 percent of the total population in most years between 2000 and 2016.

There were 449,344 active duty U.S. Army members in 2023. This amount represents a slight decrease in comparison to the number recorded in the previous year. Overall, there were 1.27 million active duty U.S. Department of Defense members, including officers and enlisted personnel in 2023.

At the end of the fiscal year of 2024, it is estimated that there will be 15 Generals serving the United States Army, and a total of 354,948 enlisted personnel. Military personnel The military departments in the United States are: the U.S. Army, the U.S. Navy, the U.S. Air Force, the U.S. Marine Corps, and the U.S. Coast Guards. The President of the United States is the military’s overall head and forms the military policy with the U.S. Department of Defense. The U.S. military is one of the largest militaries in term of number of personnel.

The largest branch of the United States Armed Forces is the United States Army. The United States Army is responsible for land-based military operations. The active duty U.S. Army personnel number has decreased from 2010 to 2021. In 2010, there were 561,979 active duty U.S. Army members, as compared to 482,416 in 2021.

The number of active duty U.S. Navy personnel has decreased slowly over the past 20 years. In 2021, there were 343,223 active duty Navy members in the United States Navy. The United States Navy personnel are enlisted sailors, commissioned officers, and midshipmen. Sailors have to take part in Personnel Qualification Standards, to prove that they have mastered skills.

The United States Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the United States. The active duty U.S. Air Force personnel numbers also decreased between 1995 and 2015, although has started to increase slightly since 2015. The number decreased again in 2021, when the Air Force had 328,888 personnel.

United States US: Armed Forces Personnel: % of Total Labour Force data was reported at 0.828 % in 2016. This records a decrease from the previous number of 0.838 % for 2015. United States US: Armed Forces Personnel: % of Total Labour Force data is updated yearly, averaging 0.995 % from Sep 1990 (Median) to 2016, with 27 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 1.704 % in 1990 and a record low of 0.828 % in 2016. United States US: Armed Forces Personnel: % of Total Labour Force data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s United States – Table US.World Bank.WDI: Defense and Official Development Assistance. Armed forces personnel are active duty military personnel, including paramilitary forces if the training, organization, equipment, and control suggest they may be used to support or replace regular military forces. Labor force comprises all people who meet the International Labour Organization's definition of the economically active population.; ; International Institute for Strategic Studies, The Military Balance.; Weighted average; Data for some countries are based on partial or uncertain data or rough estimates.

Graph and download economic data for Total Population: All Ages including Armed Forces Overseas (POP) from Jan 1952 to Dec 2025 about population and USA.

As of January 2024, China had the largest armed forces in the world by active duty military personnel, with about 2 million active soldiers. India, the United States, North Korea, and Russia rounded out the top five largest armies. Difference between active and reserve personnel Active personnel, also known as active duty in the United States and active service in the United Kingdom, are those individuals whose full-time occupation is being part of a military force. Active duty is in contrast to a military’s reserve force, which are individuals who have both a military role and a civilian career. The number of active duty forces in the U.S. is much larger than its reserve membership. What is the strongest army? The strength of a country’s armed forces is not only determined by how many personnel they maintain, but also the number and quality of their military equipment. For example, looking only at personnel does not factor in the overwhelmingly higher number of nuclear warheads owned by Russia and the United States compared to other countries. One way to answer this question is to look at the total amount of money each country spends on their military, as spending includes both personnel and technology. In terms of countries with the highest military spending, the United States leads the world with an annual budget almost three times larger than second-placed China.

Armed forces personnel are active duty military personnel, including paramilitary forces if the training, organization, equipment, and control suggest they may be used to support or replace regular military forces.

The dataset depicts the authoritative boundaries of the most commonly known Department of Defense (DoD) sites, installations, ranges, and training areas in the United States and Territories. These sites encompass land which is federally owned or otherwise managed. This dataset was created from source data provided by the four Military Service Component headquarters and was compiled by the Defense Installation Spatial Data Infrastructure (DISDI) Program within the Office of the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Installations and Environment, Business Enterprise Integration Directorate. Sites were selected from the 2010 Base Structure Report (BSR), a summary of the DoD Real Property Inventory. This list does not necessarily represent a comprehensive collection of all Department of Defense facilities, and only those in the fifty United States and US Territories were considered for inclusion. For inventory purposes, installations are comprised of sites, where a site is defined as a specific geographic location of federally owned or managed land and is assigned to military installation. DoD installations are commonly referred to as a base, camp, post, station, yard, center, homeport facility for any ship, or other activity under the jurisdiction, custody, control of the DoD.

This layer is sourced from maps.bts.dot.gov.

In 2024, 61 percent of survey respondents in the United States said they had either a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in the military. This is a slight increase from the previous year, when 640percent of respondents had confidence in the U.S. military. Additionally, this is an increase of six points from 1975 levels, when only 58 percent of Americans had confidence in the military.

SELECTED SOCIAL CHARACTERISTICS IN THE UNITED STATES VETERAN STATUS - DP02 Universe - Civilian population 18 Year and over Survey-Program - American Community Survey 5-year estimates Years - 2020, 2021, 2022 Veteran status is used to identify people with active duty military service and service in the military Reserves and the National Guard. Veterans are men and women who have served (even for a short time), but are not currently serving, on active duty in the U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, or the Coast Guard, or who served in the U.S. Merchant Marine during World War II. People who served in the National Guard or Reserves are classified as veterans only if they were ever called or ordered to active duty, not counting the 4-6 months for initial training or yearly summer camps.

This horizontal bar chart displays armed forces personnel (people) by region and is filtered where the country is the United States. The data is about countries per year.

This bar chart displays armed forces personnel (people) by date using the aggregation sum and is filtered where the region is Central America. The data is about countries per year.

This line chart displays armed forces personnel (people) by date using the aggregation sum and is filtered where the country includes the United States. The data is about countries per year.

The US Military Aviation Market is segmented by Sub Aircraft Type (Fixed-Wing Aircraft, Rotorcraft). Key Data Points observed include air passenger traffic, air transport freight, defense spending, military aircraft active fleet, revenue passenger kilometers, high-net worth individuals, and inflation rate.