* indicates monthly or quarterly data series

Armed forces personnel, 2020:

The average for 2020 based on 11 countries was 533091 people. The highest value was in India: 3068000 people and the lowest value was in Brunei: 8000 people. The indicator is available from 1985 to 2020. Below is a chart for all countries where data are available.

Measure: people; Source: International Institute for Strategic Studies
Select indicator
* indicates monthly or quarterly data series


Countries Armed forces, 2020 Global rank Available data
India 3068000 1 1985 - 2020
Indonesia 676000 2 1985 - 2020
Vietnam 522000 3 1985 - 2020
Burma 463000 4 1985 - 2020
Thailand 455000 5 1985 - 2020
Cambodia 191000 6 1985 - 2020
Philippines 157000 7 1985 - 2020
Malaysia 136000 8 1985 - 2020
Laos 129000 9 1985 - 2020
Singapore 59000 10 1985 - 2020
Brunei 8000 11 1985 - 2020



Definition: Armed forces personnel are active duty military personnel, including paramilitary forces if the training, organization, equipment, and control suggest they may be used to support or replace regular military forces.

Selected articles from our guide:

The unholy trinity of international finance

Most commonly used measures of corruption

All articles

This site uses cookies.
Learn more here


OK