I would like to locate a table that compares the size of the armed
forces of various countries.

The latest data I have found is for 1999. I'm looking for something more recent.

I was able to find some data on a website strategypage.com but I need
this information to come from a reputable source such as an academic
institution.

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Request for Question Clarification by pafalafa-ga on 30 Dec 2004 18:59 PST

I wasn't clear from your question if you're looking for numbers of
military personnel, overall military budgets, or some other metric to
compare countries.

Whichever, you can find some pretty neatly-displayed statistics on this page:


http://www.nationmaster.com/graph-T/mil_arm_for_per


The data for personnel are from the year 2000, so it's a bit more
recent than what you have already.  To get even more up to date,
though, might mean purchasing some published reports, as the data
aren't always freely available online.

Data on military expenditures can be compared here:

http://www.nationmaster.com/graph-T/mil_exp_dol_fig


and it's a mixed bag of data.  The US leads the world in military
expenses, but the number shown is from 1999, which seems almost
ancient history at this point.  Other countries are much more up to
date though.

You should explore around on the nationmaster.com site, as it can be a
great tool for country-by-country comparisons.

Let me know if this meets your needs.

pafalafa-ga

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Request for Question Clarification by pafalafa-ga on 31 Dec 2004 05:11 PST

Steve,

The nationmaster data is cited as coming from:

Source: IISS (International Institute for Strategic Studies). 2001.
The Military Balance 2001-2002. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

IISS is a very credible organization, but to get their latest data,
you would have to purchase their latest reports.  As for Israel's data
-- it's clear that there are many different ways to "count" military
personnel.  I doubt one method is generally regarded as the "correct"
one -- each organization does it a bit differently.

There are up-to-date data from a very credible organization at this link:


http://www.sipri.org/contents/milap/milex/mex_major_spenders.pdf

but the data are for expenses rather than personnel.  Still, you can
see from this one chart that their are several different ways of
ranking the data to show who has the world's largest militaries.

Hope this helps a bit.

paf

Steve,

Thanks for accepting the information I posted as an answer to your
question.  In order to close things out, I am reposting it here as a
formal answer.

I'd like to acknowledge the good work done by fp-ga as well in
identifying some useful sources.  However, fp-ga is not a Google
Answers researcher, and can only post the information in Comments
(below) rather than as a formal answer.  The GA researchers are easy
to spot, since their names appear as hyperlinks in purple type.

So...once again, here are the links to the surprsingly few good source
of information that compare the size of militaries around the world:


http://www.nationmaster.com/graph-T/mil_arm_for_per


http://www.nationmaster.com/graph-T/mil_exp_dol_fig


http://www.sipri.org/contents/milap/milex/mex_major_spenders.pdf



A librarian may be able to arrange access to some of the commercial
material that is available, such as the IISS reports, for more
up-to-date information.

All the best in the new year...


pafalafa-ga

What a great service! Thank you.

Try the CIA site World Fact Book.
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/

mikesanswers

cia factbook is quite interesting, but as far as I could tell it only
gives information by separate countries. Also, it details how many
people are available for service but not how many are actually in the
military.

SIPRI (Stockholm International Peace Research Institute)
http://www.sipri.org/
provide access to several databases:

Facts on International Relations and Security Trends (FIRST)
http://first.sipri.org/
http://first.sipri.org/index.php

There's a nice, short summary at straightdope.com,
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/040611.html
It's not complete, but gives a good overview. From July 2004.

I'm interested in the number of people in the armed forces of each country.

nationmaster.com looks pretty interesting. I'm concerned about two things:
1) it has no reputation for credibility
2) I know it got one number very wrong...the size of Israel's army is
way under-reported (probably because even though Israel's reserve
force is very active, reserves were not considered). Nationmaster.com
says 172,000. the Israeli consulate in San Francisco says 186,000
regular; 445,000 reserve.

I'm still looking for something from a source with a strong reputation.

Going to http://first.sipri.org/index.php (as mentioned in my previous comment)
and choosing the database 
"BICC  Armed forces, weapons holdings and employment in arms production"

the results are
1. Weapon holdings (aggregate number of heavy weapons)
2. Employment in arms production (in 1000s)
and
3. Armed forces personnel (in 1000s).

Do the "armed forces personnel" numbers answer your question?

BICC "Bonn International Center for Conversion"
http://www.bicc.de/

re:  "Going to http://first.sipri.org/index.php (as mentioned in my
previous comment)
and choosing the database 
"BICC  Armed forces, weapons holdings and employment in arms production"
 I couldn't figure out how to get a chart for all countries. At least
as I tried it, you could only get data by country or region.
Presumably I could stitch together all the needed info but I'm trying
to avoid that.

thanks for all the help. I've gotten really valuable info. I'm
satisfied with the answers I've received from both fp-ga and
pafalafa-ga. First-time Google Answers user here. How do we stop this
process, and get the paltry payment to the two folks who helped me
out?

Steve and paf, thank you ... and all the best for 2005!