United States Department of Defense

The total numerical strength of the Armed Forces on June 30, 1996 was 1,478,687. This is a decrease of 1,181 from May 31, 1996 and a decrease of 68,498 from the same time in 1995.

These figures represent full-time military personnel comprising both regular and reserves on active duty and officer candidates, including cadets at the three military academies. Please note this a change from previous reports showing one month of preliminary strength and one month of actual military strength.

Excluded from these figures are approximately 65,000 full-time military personnel who are paid from other than active duty military personnel appropriations. This group is funded from appropriations for reserve components and Corps of Engineers civil functions. A comparable figure for Fiscal Year 1995 was also 65,000 military personnel.

June 1996 strength figures for each service with month-ago and year-ago figures for comparison are:

                  06/30/96      05/31/96     Change from Prev. Month       
                   (Actual)     (Actual)        Amount   Percent      06/30/95    
   Total DoD       1,478,687    1,479,868      -1,181   -0.08%       1,547,185 
   Army              491,094      493,330      -2,236   -0.45%         524,897 
   Navy              422,717      423,225        -508   -0.12%         441,685 
   Marine Corps      172,287      171,464         823    0.48%         171,946 
   Air Force         392,589      391,849         740    0.19%         408,657 

Please note the active duty personnel strength data provided does not include Selected Reserve strength ordered to active duty by the President under Title 10, United States Code 12304.