Here's a listing of the nations with the highest Active Military

Here's a listing of the nations with the highest Active Military Manpower from
the 1999 almanac (which actually means data from about 1996). I cut & pasted
this from an Excel (Win95) spreadsheet, which I can email to anyone who's
interested and who emails me directly (requests which get posted to the list
will be ruthlessly ignored).

Population is in Millions GDP in US$Billions Active Military Manpower in
1000's Military Budget in $Billions Per Capita GDP in US$ Military Budget per
Active Military Manpower also in $US

The lowest budget percentage devoted to the military is 0.40%, Mexico; the
highest is N Korea's 25.83%, then Israel at 11.2 and Russia at 9.26%, followed
by Taiwan at 4.3% and on down from there.

N Korea apparently has nearly 5% of its people active in the
military--talk about paranoia--followed by Israel at 3% or so
and most others in the.5 to 1.5% range. I'm not including reservists in this
figure, as I suspect a considerable portion of the official figure for several
nations would be militarily
useless--they might possibly remember how to use a rifle but not
much else.

Nation Pop GDP ActMen ReserveMen MilBud e/c % g/d Per Cap GDP
Mil$/Man
Brazil 169.8 1022 314.7 1115 10.6 0.19 1.04  6,019   33,683
China 1237 3390 2840 1200 38 0.23 1.12 2,741 13,380
Egypt 66 183.9 450 254 2.7 0.68 1.47  2,786   6,000
France 58.8 1220 380.8 292.5 47.2 0.65 3.87  20,748   123,950
Germany 82 1700 347 315 39.2 0.42 2.31 20,732 112,968
India 984 1540 1145 528.4 10.4 0.12 0.68  1,565   9,083
Indonesia 212.9 779.7 461 400 4.7 0.22 0.60  3,662   10,195
Iran 69 343.5 518 350 3.4 0.75 0.99  4,978   6,564
Iraq 21.7 42 387.5 650 1.3 1.79 3.10  1,935   3,355
Israel 5.6 85.7 175 430 9.6 3.13 11.20 15,304 54,857
Italy 56.8 1120 325.2 484 23.8 0.57 2.13  19,718   73,186
Japan 125.9 2850 235.6 46.7 44.5 0.19 1.56  22,637   188,879
Mexico 98.6 777.3 175 300 3.1 0.18 0.40 7,883 17,714 Morocco 29 97.6 196.3 150
1.6 0.68 1.64 3,366 8,151
Myanmar 47.3 51.5 429 0 2 0.91 3.88  1,089   4,662
N Korea 21.2 20.9 1055 4700 5.4 4.98 25.84  986   5,118
Pakistan 135 296.5 587 513 3.7 0.43 1.25  2,196   6,303
Poland 38.6 246.3 241.8 406 3.1 0.63 1.26  6,381   12,821
Romania 22.4 113.2 227 427 0.7 1.01 0.62  5,054   3,084
Russia 146.9 767 1240 20000 71 0.84 9.26  5,221   57,258
S Korea 46.4 647.2 672 4500 15.5 1.45 2.39  13,948   23,065
Spain 39 593 197.5 431.9 8.6 0.51 1.45 15,205 43,544
Syria 16.7 98.3 320 500 1.6 1.92 1.63  5,886   5,000
Taiwan 21.9 315 376 1657.5 13.6 1.72 4.32  14,384   36,170
Thailand 60 455.7 266 200 4.3 0.44 0.94 7,595 16,165 Turkey 64.6 379.1 639
378.7 7 0.99 1.85 5,868 10,955
UK  58.8 1150 213.8 378.4 33.5 0.36 2.91  19,558   156,688
Ukraine 50.1 161.1 387.4 1000 1.3 0.77 0.81  3,216   3,356
US 270.3 8110 1447.6 1711.7 267.1 0.54 3.29  30,004   184,512
Vietnam 76.2 108.7 492 3500 1 0.65 0.92 1,427 2,033