A longstanding tradition of the American government and the defense and weapons industry working closely together creates economic incentives to build up arms and defenses, translating into a need for more personnel.Īdditionally, the U.S. For one, the military industrial complex feeds into the U.S. In the U.S., many different factors play into why the country has such a large military force. In many of these countries, geopolitical and historical factors play into why they have mandatory service in place.
Here’s a look at just a few of the other countries that require their citizens to serve some form of military service: There are however, certain exceptions: the K-Pop group BTS was recently granted legal rights to delay their military service, thanks to the country’s culture minister. Most service terms are just over one year at minimum. In South Korea, a man must enlist at some point between the ages of 18 and 28. In select cases, women are conscripted as well. They begin active service at age 17 and remain in the army for another 13 years. In North Korea, boys are conscripted at age 14.
The Koreas, two countries still technically at war, both conscript citizens for their armies. For example, in Vietnam, North Korea, and Russia, citizens are required to serve a mandatory period of time for the military. The reasons for these immense military sizes are obvious in some cases. Excluding estimates of paramilitary forces, the Hermit Kingdom has nearly 1.9 million active and reserve troops. When combining all three types of military, Vietnam comes out on top with over 10 million personnel.Īnd here are the world’s top 10 biggest militaries, excluding paramilitary forces:Įven in this case, North Korea remains near the top of the list with these much larger nations. If we include paramilitary forces, here’s how the top countries stack up in terms of military personnel: Country Which country has the biggest military? It depends who’s doing the counting. NOTE: Of these categories of military personnel, paramilitary is the least well-defined across the world’s countries and thus not included in the infographic above.
There are three commonly measured categories of military personnel: So who has the largest military? Well, the answer isn’t so simple. This map, using data from World Population Review, displays all the world’s military personnel.
While much of the world is living in one of the most peaceful periods in history, the spark of new conflicts like Russia’s invasion of Ukraine reminds us of the importance of military personnel.īetween ongoing armed conflicts to building of defenses preemptively, many countries have amassed significant militaries to date. Mapped: All the World’s Military Personnel
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