The list consists of columns that can be sorted by clicking on the appropriate title: • The names of the states, accompanied by their respective
national flags. • The number of
military personnel on
active duty that are currently serving full-time in their military capacity. • The number of military personnel in the
reserve forces that are not normally kept
under arms, whose role is to be available to
mobilize when necessary. • The number of personnel in
paramilitary forces: armed units that are not considered part of a nation's formal military forces. • The total number of active, reserve, and paramilitary personnel. • The ratio per thousand inhabitants of total military (active, reserve, and paramilitary). • The ratio per thousand inhabitants of active military only. As military forces around the world are constantly changing in size, no definitive list can ever be compiled. All of the 178 countries listed here, especially those with the highest number of total soldiers such as the two
Koreas and
Vietnam, include a large number of paramilitaries, civilians and policemen in their reserve personnel. Some countries, such as
Italy and
Japan, have only volunteers in their armed forces. Other countries, such as
Mauritius and
Panama, have no national armies, but only a paramilitary force.
Tooth-to-tail ratio The numbers of military personnel listed include both support personnel (supplies, construction, and contracting) and actual combat personnel. For a typical country, the proportion of this total that comprises actual combat forces is about 26% (so, for every soldier there will be around three support personnel). This proportion is referred to as the "tooth-to-tail ratio". Some countries have a considerably smaller
tooth-to-tail ratio: For example, the
United States Armed Forces has a tooth-to-tail ratio of 17%, meaning that for every combat unit there are around five support units. ==List by the International Institute for Strategic Studies==