I have one quick question whose answer I don’t know where else to look for. Worldwide, what is the total number of people employed in the military services? For the purposes of this inquiry, let’s leave out rebel groups, terrorists, and “security consultants” (mercenaries), and instead focus on government forces. Let me start you off: I know that the USA has about 2 point something million people employed in the armed forces, and that China has about the same. I believe Turkey has 800,000 and Iraq has a bit less than 1 million. I estimate that there are about 10 million military personnel around the world. How close is my guess? By the way, I know that not all of those people are soldiers, with quite a lot just ceremonial guards, scientists, engineers, and other support or non-combat roles. To simplify things, let’s include them anyway, and see how many we end up with.
This is a great question! Alas, I don’t know the answer.
Would you include militias and national guard units (If so, do you count the entire male population of Switzerland?) What about national police forces that are entrusted with national defence (like in Costa Rica)? Does the Coast Guard count?
Sorry, I know I’m not being much help, but at least my post will bump this thread to the top.
I hadn’t considered militias or national guard units (and I’d totally forgotten about Switzerland). I suppose we should only count soldiers who are in uniform and on active duty. As for police forces, well, I don’t think they’re technically soldiers, even though they may take on military roles, so let’s leave them out. And for the Coast Guard, are they part of the military, or are they just some kind of coastal police (my knowledge of American military structure is a bit hazy)? I wonder how the soldiers were counted in the estimate. By the by, 22 million soldiers? I was way off (and way too optimistic about the world).