Countries value their national security above all else. Today, organized militaries employ nearly 200 million people worldwide — modern countries rarely lack a standing army. Armed services can be generally broken down into land-based armies, seafaring navies and high-flying air forces, though some countries do have additional branches such as the United States Coast Guard and Marines.
Using data from the World Bank, FindTheData, part of the Graphiq network, crunched the numbers to find the top 25 countries with the most troops. Rather than using aggregate troop count to rank the list, we ordered it by the percentage of a country’s total labor force represented by its troops. The World Bank defines armed forces as any active military personnel that have received some form of training and are properly organized. This includes paramilitary forces, such as private contracted defense agencies like Academi (formerly known as Blackwater) that have adequate training to qualify them to support or replace state troops. Labor force is defined as a country’s economically active population.
#25. South Korea
Armed Forces as a Percentage of Labor Force: 2.4%
Total Military Personnel: 632,500
#24. Iraq
Armed Forces as a Percentage of Labor Force: 2.41%
Total Military Personnel: 209,000
#23. Sao Tome and Principe
Armed Forces as a Percentage of Labor Force: 2.43%
Total Military Personnel: 1,000
#22. Algeria
Armed Forces as a Percentage of Labor Force: 2.57%
Total Military Personnel: 317,200
#21. Bahrain
Armed Forces as a Percentage of Labor Force: 2.59%
Total Military Personnel: 19,460
#20. Sri Lanka
Armed Forces as a Percentage of Labor Force: 2.6%
Total Military Personnel: 223,100
#19. Bhutan
Armed Forces as a Percentage of Labor Force: 2.68%
Total Military Personnel: 6,000
#18. Egypt
Armed Forces as a Percentage of Labor Force: 2.82%
Total Military Personnel: 835,500
#17. Greece
Armed Forces as a Percentage of Labor Force: 2.98%
Total Military Personnel: 146,950
#16. Armenia
Armed Forces as a Percentage of Labor Force: 3.15%
Total Military Personnel: 49,100
#15. Belarus
Armed Forces as a Percentage of Labor Force: 3.52%
Total Military Personnel: 158,000
#14. Afghanistan
Armed Forces as a Percentage of Labor Force: 3.71%
Total Military Personnel: 308,800
#13. Laos
Armed Forces as a Percentage of Labor Force: 3.82%
Total Military Personnel: 129,100
#12. Djibouti
Armed Forces as a Percentage of Labor Force: 4.22%
Total Military Personnel: 12,950
#11. Brunei Darussalam
Armed Forces as a Percentage of Labor Force: 4.55%
Total Military Personnel: 9,250
#10. Syria
Armed Forces as a Percentage of Labor Force: 4.6%
Total Military Personnel: 280,500
#9. Singapore
Armed Forces as a Percentage of Labor Force: 4.75%
Total Military Personnel: 147,600
#8. Montenegro
Armed Forces as a Percentage of Labor Force: 4.84%
Total Military Personnel: 12,180
#7. Lebanon
Armed Forces as a Percentage of Labor Force: 4.85%
Total Military Personnel: 80,000
#6. Israel
Armed Forces as a Percentage of Labor Force: 4.94%
Total Military Personnel: 184,500
#5. Maldives
Armed Forces as a Percentage of Labor Force: 5.39%
Total Military Personnel: 5,000
#4. Palestine
Armed Forces as a Percentage of Labor Force: 5.76%
Total Military Personnel: 56,000
#3. Jordan
Armed Forces as a Percentage of Labor Force: 6.52%
Total Military Personnel: 115,500
#2. Eritrea
Armed Forces as a Percentage of Labor Force: 8.13%
Total Military Personnel: 201,750
#1. North Korea
Armed Forces as a Percentage of Labor Force: 8.99%
Total Military Personnel: 1,379,000
Summary
The secretive, volatile nation of North Korea tops the list with the greatest percentage of overall labor force employed in the armed services. South Korea’s military is sizeable enough to have made our list, but it is notably smaller than North Korea’s. This discrepancy is peculiar considering the frequency of armed clashes between the two. Though neither country is featured on this list, we also discovered that China has more than twice the military troops of the United States. As a percentage of labor force however, the United States is greater, with 0.9 percent compared to China’s 0.38 percent.