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Active Military Personnel Across NATO, Russia and Ukraine
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Key Takeaways
- Russia has 1.5M active military personnel as of July 2024, making it the biggest force among this group
- The U.S. accounts for 63% of NATO’s total active military personnel
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Discussions regarding Europe’s defenses have ramped up as the U.S. rethinks its military commitments to Ukraine and NATO.
To learn more about this topic, we visualized the number of active military personnel across NATO, Russia, and Ukraine, highlighting how troop numbers stack up in an era of rising geopolitical tensions.
Data and Highlights
The data we used to create this graphic are 2024 NATO estimates sourced from Statista and United24.
| Country | Active Military Personnel | NATO Member |
|---|---|---|
| Russia | 1,500,000 | |
| U.S. | 1,328,000 | |
| Ukraine | 880,000 | |
| Türkiye | 355,200 | |
| Poland | 202,100 | |
| France | 200,000 | |
| UK | 184,860 | |
| Germany | 181,600 | |
| Italy | 165,500 | |
| Greece | 142,700 | |
| Spain | 133,282 | |
| Romania | 81,300 | |
| Canada | 68,000 | |
| Hungary | 41,600 | |
| Netherlands | 41,380 | |
| Bulgaria | 37,000 | |
| Czechia | 28,000 | |
| Belgium | 25,000 | |
| Sweden | 24,400 | |
| Portugal | 24,000 | |
| Finland | 24,000 | |
| Norway | 23,250 | |
| Lithuania | 23,000 | |
| Denmark | 20,000 | |
| Slovakia | 19,500 | |
| Latvia | 17,250 | |
| Croatia | 14,325 | |
| North Macedonia | 9,000 | |
| Estonia | 7,700 | |
| Slovenia | 7,300 | |
| Albania | 6,600 | |
| Montenegro | 2,350 | |
| Luxembourg | 1,000 |
Based on these numbers, NATO has a combined 3.44 million active military personnel, falling to 2.11 million without the United States. If Ukraine were to join NATO, the alliance’s total would increase to 4.32 million.
Will Ukraine join NATO?
If the U.S. were to withdraw from NATO, it would leave a massive gap in the alliance’s strength.
As a result, there is mounting pressure for Ukraine’s entry into NATO to be expedited. Here’s a brief timeline of key events regarding Ukraine’s NATO ambitions:
- 2008: NATO allies agree at the 2008 Bucharest Summit that Ukraine can become a member
- 2017: Ukraine adopts legislation reinstating membership in NATO as a strategic foreign & security policy objective
- 2020: Zelenskyy approves Ukraine’s new National Security Strategy, which lays a path for membership in NATO
- 2024: Allies reaffirm Ukraine’s future in NATO, though it must remain independent in the face of Russia’s invasion according to former NATO boss Jens Stoltenberg.
What Does Europe Need to Protect Itself?
According to a recent report, Europe would need to build up a massive land force in the Baltics if the U.S. were to withdraw its military assets from the region.
This force would need 1,400 tanks, 2,000 infantry fighting vehicles, 700 artillery pieces, and one million 155mm shells for the first 3 months of a hypothetical Russian breakthrough scenario.
It’s worthy to point out that European NATO members have significantly increased their defense spending in the last two years.
Learn More on the Voronoi App
If you enjoyed this graphic, check out this breakdown of $1.3 trillion in NATO defense spending on Voronoi, the new app from Visual Capitalist.
The post Infographic: Army Sizes of NATO, Russia, and Ukraine appeared first on Visual Capitalist.