United States Department of Defense

The total numerical strength of the Armed Forces on Sept. 30, 1996 was 1,471,722. This is a decrease of 4,103 from Aug. 31, 1996 and a decrease of 46,502 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.

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.

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

                  09/30/96       08/31/96      Change from Prev. Month     
                  (Actual)       (Actual)         Amount    Percent    09/30/95
  Total DoD      1,471,722      1,475,825         -4,103    -0.28%    1,518,224
  Army             491,103        492,878         -1,775    -0.36%      508,559
  Navy             416,735        418,467         -1,732    -0.41%      434,617
  Marine Corps     174,883        173,737          1,146     0.66%      174,639
  Air Force        389,001        390,743         -1,742    -0.45%      400,409

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.