I would like to know the total number of people that served in the US
military during World War 2.

I would also like to know the number who were involved in the aviation
branches of the military (US Army Air Air Force, and those involved in
Naval Aviation). Ideally (but not essentially) this would include a
breakdown between aircrew (pilots, gunners etc) and support personnel
(mechanics, etc).

Finally I would like to know how many veterans of WW2 (total) are
estimated to survive today, and the rate at which they are dying.

Hi there,

Thanks for the interesting questions. 

Question 1: The total number of people that served in the US military
during World War 2?

My search strategy was to go directly to online encyclopaedias, of
which Encarta had the answer:

"A total of 110 million persons were mobilized for military service,
more than half of those by three countries: the USSR (22-30 million),
Germany (17 million), and the United States (16 million). For the
major participants the largest numbers on duty at any one time were as
follows: USSR (12,500,000); U.S. (12,245,000); Germany (10,938,000);
British Empire and Commonwealth (8,720,000); Japan (7,193,000); and
China (5,000,000)…Most statistics on the war are only estimates. The
war's vast and chaotic sweep made uniform record keeping impossible.
Some governments lost control of the data, and some resorted to
manipulating it for political reasons."

Taken from "World War II," Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia
2002
http://encarta.msn.com/find/concise.asp?mod=1&ti=761563737&page=7

I also found:

16,353,700 total
http://www.cwc.lsu.edu/cwc/other/stats/warcost.htm

16,112,566 total
http://www.va.gov/pressrel/amwars01.htm

16,535,000 total
http://www.libraryspot.com/lists/listwars.htm

The American War Library:
12,123,455 peak
http://members.aol.com/forcountry/ww2/nus.htm
Marine figures
http://members.aol.com/forcountry/ww2/mar.htm

3,405,525 peak US Navy
http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq65-1.htm


Question 2: The number who were involved in the aviation branches of
the military (US Army Air Force, and those involved in Naval
Aviation)?

Search strategy:
USAAF served WW2
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF8&oe=UTF8&q=USAAF+served+WW2
"air force" served WW2
://www.google.com/search?num=30&hl=en&q=%22air+force%22+served+WW2

USAAF - An archive of the official USAAF data is available in .pdf
files from:
 
Army Air Forces Statistical Digest - 72 detailed tables
http://www.au.af.mil/au/afhra/wwwroot/aafsd/aafsd_list_of_tables_personneltrainingcrews.html

To view these you need Acrobat Reader, a free download:
http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html

An unofficial source summed it up as:

The Army Air Force began WW2 with 25,000 officers and enlisted men,
and peaked at 2,411,294.
http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Hangar/1956/indexthose.html

Air Force - "From an elite corps of 20,000 regulars in mid-1938, the
air arm grew to a peak force of more than 300,000 officers and
2,000,000 enlisted men before the war was over."
http://www.airpower.maxwell.af.mil/airchronicles/apj/apj87/trest.html

Naval Aviation - I was unable to locate any figures.

Question 3: Veterans of WW2 (total) that are estimated to survive
today, and the rate at which they are dying?

My search strategy was to head straight to:

Department of Veteran Affairs Home Page
http://www.va.gov/index.htm

Estimate for 30 Sept 2001:

All who served in WW2 (including other wars) - 5,032,591
All who served in WW2 only - 4,503,677

Estimate for 30 Sept 2002:

All who served in WW2 (including other wars) - 4,618,560
All who served in WW2 only - 4,126,864

Estimate for 30 Sept 2003:

All who served in WW2 (including other wars) - 4,211,991
All who served in WW2 only - 3,757,532

Estimate for 30 Sept 2004:

All who served in WW2 (including other wars) - 3,815,644
All who served in WW2 only - 3,398,189

Estimate for 30 Sept 2005:

All who served in WW2 (including other wars) - 3,432,216
All who served in WW2 only - 3,051,268

Estimate for 30 Sept 2006:

All who served in WW2 (including other wars) - 3,064,236
All who served in WW2 only - 2,719,024

Estimate for 30 Sept 2007:

All who served in WW2 (including other wars) - 2,714,009
All who served in WW2 only - 2,403,501

Estimate for 30 Sept 2008:

All who served in WW2 (including other wars) - 2,383,578
All who served in WW2 only - 2,106,488

Estimate for 30 Sept 2009:

All who served in WW2 (including other wars) - 2,074,699
All who served in WW2 only - 1,829,504

Estimate for 30 Sept 2010:

All who served in WW2 (including other wars) - 1,788,795
All who served in WW2 only - 1,573,751

Estimate for 30 Sept 2011:

All who served in WW2 (including other wars) - 1,526,903
All who served in WW2 only - 1,340,074

Estimate for 30 Sept 2012:

All who served in WW2 (including other wars) - 1,289,627
All who served in WW2 only - 1,128,919

Estimate for 30 Sept 2013:

All who served in WW2 (including other wars) - 1,077,141
All who served in WW2 only - 940,343

Estimate for 30 Sept 2014:

All who served in WW2 (including other wars) - 889,152
All who served in WW2 only - 773,986

Estimate for 30 Sept 2015:

All who served in WW2 (including other wars) - 724,947
All who served in WW2 only - 629,113

Estimate for 30 Sept 2016:

All who served in WW2 (including other wars) - 583,410
All who served in WW2 only - 504,637

Estimate for 30 Sept 2017:

All who served in WW2 (including other wars) - 463,088
All who served in WW2 only - 399,172

Estimate for 30 Sept 2018:

All who served in WW2 (including other wars) - 362,282
All who served in WW2 only - 311,126

Estimate for 30 Sept 2019:

All who served in WW2 (including other wars) - 279,113
All who served in WW2 only - 238,757

Estimate for 30 Sept 2020:

All who served in WW2 (including other wars) - 211,584
All who served in WW2 only - 180,232

Estimate for 30 Sept 2021:

All who served in WW2 (including other wars) - 157,657
All who served in WW2 only - 133,696

Estimate for 30 Sept 2022:

All who served in WW2 (including other wars) - 115,350
All who served in WW2 only - 97,357

Estimate for 30 Sept 2023:

All who served in WW2 (including other wars) - 82,776
All who served in WW2 only - 69,520

Estimate for 30 Sept 2024:

All who served in WW2 (including other wars) - 58,226
All who served in WW2 only - 48,664

Estimate for 30 Sept 2025:

All who served in WW2 (including other wars) - 40,206
All who served in WW2 only - 33,455

Estimate for 30 Sept 2026:

All who served in WW2 (including other wars) - 27,321
All who served in WW2 only - 22,652

Estimate for 30 Sept 2027:

All who served in WW2 (including other wars) - 18,328
All who served in WW2 only - 15,159

Estimate for 30 Sept 2028:

All who served in WW2 (including other wars) - 12,187
All who served in WW2 only - 10,069

Estimate for 30 Sept 2029:

All who served in WW2 (including other wars) - 8,073
All who served in WW2 only - 6,670

Source (Microsoft Excel file): 
http://www.va.gov/vetdata/Demograhics/Basic/Data/99_7L.xls

For more information, visit VetPop2000: 

"VetPop200 is the official VA estimate and projection of the number
and characteristics of veterans as of September 30, 2000"
http://www.va.gov/vetdata/Demograhics/index.htm

I trust I have answered your questions. Feel free to ask for any
clarifications you may require.

Best wishes,
robertskelton-ga

Thank you for an excellent piece of research. Although I am still
looking for naval aviation numbers, I think that what has been
provided is well worth the money!

Robert did a great job on answering your questions. I don't think my
answer adds much if anything, I'm just going to put it in because I
had a good time reading your question, doing some research, and
writing it up (I saw the question before it was "locked")...

Spitfire, hope this helps.
On the question of how many served in the US military during WWII,
this is what I found:

According to The United States Civil War Center
http://www.cwc.lsu.edu/cwc/other/stats/warcost.htm the United States
had 16,353,700 military personnel on the lists in World War II.  You
didn’t ask for the grimmer statistic but lest we forget, of those
1,078,162 were casualties (dead and wounded).

Earl F. Ziemke (Microsoft Encarta 97) 
 http://www.emayzine.com/lectures/WWII.html says
“World War II's basic statistics qualify it as by far the greatest war
in history in terms of human and material resources expended. In all,
61 countries with 1.7 billion people, three-fourths of the world's
population, took part. A total of 110 million persons were mobilized
for military service, more than half of those by three countries: the
USSR (22-30 million), Germany (17 million), and the United States (16
million). For the major participants the largest numbers on duty at
any one time were as follows: USSR (12,500,000); U.S. (12,245,000);
Germany (10,938,000); British Empire and Commonwealth (8,720,000);
Japan (7,193,000); and China (5,000,000).

Most statistics on the war are only estimates. The war's vast and
chaotic sweep made uniform record keeping impossible. Some governments
lost control of the data, and some resorted to manipulating it for
political reasons.”

See also the tables at http://gi.grolier.com/wwii/wwii_16.html#DATA

On Military Aviation, Spartacus says
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/2WWusaaf.htm
“in 1941 the USAAF had 25,000 personnel and about 4,000 aircraft.”

Sorry, I think the information to answer your question is there, but I
don’t have time tonight to look into it any further (have to get up
and work tomorrow!).

On the question of surviving veterans, I found this on the Veterans
Administration websites:

http://www.va.gov/vetdata/Trends/td95tb01.xls lists stats from
1971-1995…
http://www.va.gov/vetdata/ProgramStatics/stat_app01/Table1(01).xls
reports that as of Sept. 30, 2000 there were 4,857,000 surviving
veterans of WWII in the US and Puerto Rico. As of Sept. 30, 2001 there
were 4,501,000.  Both are Excel spreadsheets, and might help as far as
percentages go.

I think I might have answered some of your (very good!) questions,
sorry I didn’t get the aviation stats. As I said, I think the answers
are there, and if I get a chance later I’ll try to find them. Thanks
for a mind-stretching exercise! BTW, I used nothing but
://www.google.com to find this stuff, hope it helps!

Google is my co-pilot,
Tim

Tim thank you for your comment which was really useful - Spitfire