# How Many People Make Up the US Military?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-make-up-the-us-military/192256>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [August 1, 2003, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-make-up-the-us-military/192256 "2003-08-01T00:56:35Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![PatriotX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c4cdca/32.png) [@PatriotX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatriotX)\
**Post date:** [August 1, 2003, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-make-up-the-us-military/192256/1 "2003-08-01T00:56:35Z")

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How many US troops are there?  
Combined?  
By Service?

Where’d you find out?

Where’re they now?  
How’d you find that out?

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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:** [August 1, 2003, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-make-up-the-us-military/192256/2 "2003-08-01T01:34:11Z")

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Well, for starters: [http://www.defenselink.mil/pubs/almanac/almanac/people/activeduty.html](http://www.defenselink.mil/pubs/almanac/almanac/people/activeduty.html)

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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:** [August 1, 2003, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-make-up-the-us-military/192256/3 "2003-08-01T01:37:39Z")

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Here’s a .pdf of stats current as of 05/31/03: [http://www.dior.whs.mil/mmid/military/ms1.pdf](http://www.dior.whs.mil/mmid/military/ms1.pdf)

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**Author:** ![PatriotX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c4cdca/32.png) [@PatriotX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatriotX)\
**Post date:** [August 1, 2003, 11:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-make-up-the-us-military/192256/4 "2003-08-01T11:33:28Z")

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thanks muches

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**Author:** ![PatriotX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c4cdca/32.png) [@PatriotX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatriotX)\
**Post date:** [August 1, 2003, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-make-up-the-us-military/192256/5 "2003-08-01T22:17:31Z")

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Any body know where I can find out about troop distributions?

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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:** [August 1, 2003, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-make-up-the-us-military/192256/6 "2003-08-01T22:51:54Z")

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OK, but you need to promise me that you’re not going to use this info to plan out a massive, worldwide strike against all of our service personnel.

[http://www.dior.whs.mil/mmid/M05/hst1202.pdf](http://www.dior.whs.mil/mmid/M05/hst1202.pdf)

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**Author:** ![PatriotX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c4cdca/32.png) [@PatriotX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatriotX)\
**Post date:** [August 1, 2003, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-make-up-the-us-military/192256/7 "2003-08-01T23:11:38Z")

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I promise.

I’m just an arguing, ignorant, pig-headed so-and-so debating with someone a lot like me. 😉