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the most complete and updated dataset on global U.S. troop deployments
from 1950 to 2023.
The total number of active duty U.S. troops across all ranks and services is in long-term decline, from peaks above 3 million in the 1950s and 1960s to 1.4 million today. The number of deployed troops has declined as well, from a 1968 peak above one million to 450,000 immediately after 2001 to a current level of 194,000.
The dataset covers 74 years and 180 countries: 1950-2023 from Afghanistan to Venezuela. It is based on annual reports published by the Pentagon, compiled initially by Dr. Tim Kane in 2004, and updated here. The Pentagon data are often incomplete, so this dataset is supplemented by multiple news sources and other government reports.
The basing of U.S. troops in Europe after WW2 had a powerful and proven impact on deterrence of conflict. When the Soviet Union and the communist regimes of the Warsaw Pact dissolved during 1989-1991, American forces were drawn down from 300,000 to 100,000, then further to the 70,000 range after 9/11. Recently, U.S. basing has shifted slightly away from NATO allies to the east (notably Poland), but nowhere near the levels of the Cold War.
During the Korean war, one of every fifty Americans was in uniform. Today, fewer than one in two hundred Americans are in uniform. However, the percentage of Americans who serve has held steady around 0.4 percent for the past three decades due to a shift from a conscripted Army to the modern force which is filled entirely by volunteers. Skeptics said a volunteer force could not exist during wartime. They were wrong.
As a percentage of the world population, deployed U.S. troops went from a Cold War high of 0.037% to a steady 0.010%.
Despite a reputation as a modern empire, American forces based abroad are at a 75-year low today, at around 0.003% of the world’s population.
