# How many people in a company (military?)

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-in-a-company-military/373078>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 17, 2006, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-in-a-company-military/373078 "2006-09-17T16:14:28Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![betenoir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/258eb7/32.png) [@betenoir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/betenoir)\
**Post date:** [September 17, 2006, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-in-a-company-military/373078/1 "2006-09-17T16:14:28Z")

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Having a hard time googling, company being too common a word. Military dopers?

Thanks.

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**Author:** ![Scruloose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e68b1a/32.png) [@Scruloose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scruloose)\
**Post date:** [September 17, 2006, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-in-a-company-military/373078/2 "2006-09-17T16:31:50Z")

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Here’s some previous threads:

[How many men?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=252301)

[United States military command structure](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=378096)

According to **Paul in Saudi** , a company has about 150 to 200 people.

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**Author:** ![cerberus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/71e660/32.png) [@cerberus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cerberus)\
**Post date:** [September 17, 2006, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-in-a-company-military/373078/3 "2006-09-17T16:55:26Z")

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The size of a company also depends on the company’s job. An infantry company has ~200 troops, and is commanded by a Captain (O-3).

I suspect that medical companies are possibly smaller than that, with someone as senior as LTC(O-5) or Colonel(O-6) commanding, since the majority of that unit will be commissioned, and since the physicians enter service at Captain (O-3) or higher.

Other specialised companies may well vary from the “Captain in charge of a bunch of Platoons and Sections” model.