Skip to content
Palanor is in early release, with our founding customers.Become a founding customer →
The Real Rate Index45.30.00Palanor: Inflation Pulse50.7+0.09Palanor: Geopolitical Stress60.0-2.16Palanor: Liquidity57.9-0.79Palanor: Capital Tightness47.5+0.91Palanor: Industrial Pulse70.10.00Palanor: AI Margin Compression53.4+0.29Palanor: Consumer Confidence48.6+0.50Palanor: US Dollar Strength46.50.00Palanor: Labor Heat63.2-0.01Palanor: Recession Vocabulary28.1+0.54Palanor: Uncertainty Index53.4+1.24Palanor: US Jobs Health40.30.00Palanor: Energy Transition37.0-0.52Palanor: Reshoring Sentiment22.8+0.54Palanor: AI Substitution28.4-0.24The Social Fabric Index45.70.00Palanor: Geopolitical Anxiety19.4-0.45Palanor: Quit Pressure37.6+0.42The Mania Index88.00.00The Palanor Index57.1-0.51Cost Disease Spread33.20.00Palanor: US vs China49.5-0.17Rise of Socialism Index40.8-0.26Palanor: Steward Confidence50.8+0.13The Bubble Memory79.90.00The Long Watch90.30.00The Reshoring Index55.2+0.00The Capital Return Index81.0-0.75The Discourse Index72.4+1.83The Hesitation Index30.8-6.58Palanor AI Inference Cost Index71.2-0.03The AI Capex Race Index78.4+1.36The Boardroom Index82.5-0.00The Layoff Cycle Index32.8-2.51Capital Deployment Posture Index62.3+1.26The Consumer Health Index41.7-2.96Labor Hours Composite44.40.00The Dollar Erosion Index66.6+0.14Palanor: Risk Appetite36.2+0.83
PalanorPalanor

Line

U.S. Active-Duty Troops by Service

Active-duty military personnel worldwide by service, persons

Army: 455,397 in Q3 2026the highest since 2022−15,875 since Q3 2016

6 of 6 series are above their level a year earlier·2 of 5 are at a five-year high

YTD1y2y5y10y20yAll
ForecastOffContinuationForesight™
Show ▾
U.S. recessionsShades the months the NBER dates as recession. U.S. charts only.High and lowMarks the highest and lowest readings in the window shown.
Current·Data to Q3 2026

Plays the chart through its history. Pauses are where the data set a record or moved most.

Army · Continuation · the recent trend, flattening · 1 year

Navy · Continuation · the recent trend, flattening · 1 year

Marine Corps · Continuation · the recent trend, flattening · 1 year

Air Force · Continuation · the recent trend, flattening · 1 year

Continuation isn't available for Space Force: Charts project up to 4 series.

Continuation isn't available for Coast Guard: Charts project up to 4 series.

Dashed: the projection from the latest reading. A projection, not a promise.

Defense Manpower Data Center, quarterly personnel reports by duty location: active-duty members worldwide. DMDC published no active-duty totals for December 2022 to June 2023. The Space Force is counted inside the Air Force until September 2023.

The size of each U.S. armed service since 2008: an Army shrinking from its war-time peak, a steady Navy and Air Force, and the new Space Force.

What this chart reads·6 series

Show all

Sources·6 sources

Show all

U.S. Active-Duty Military Personnel · Army (DMDC). Source: Defense Manpower Data Center (DMDC), U.S. Department of Defense, "Number of Military and DoD Appropriated Fund (APF) Civilian Personnel by Assigned Duty Location and Service/Component" (quarterly location report, dwp.dmdc.osd.mil, workforce reports), active-duty columns of the Grand Total row. "Information presented on this site is considered public information and may be distributed or copied" (DMDC privacy and security notice). Read monthly.

U.S. Active-Duty Military Personnel · Navy (DMDC). Source: Defense Manpower Data Center (DMDC), U.S. Department of Defense, "Number of Military and DoD Appropriated Fund (APF) Civilian Personnel by Assigned Duty Location and Service/Component" (quarterly location report, dwp.dmdc.osd.mil, workforce reports), active-duty columns of the Grand Total row. "Information presented on this site is considered public information and may be distributed or copied" (DMDC privacy and security notice). Read monthly.

U.S. Active-Duty Military Personnel · Marine Corps (DMDC). Source: Defense Manpower Data Center (DMDC), U.S. Department of Defense, "Number of Military and DoD Appropriated Fund (APF) Civilian Personnel by Assigned Duty Location and Service/Component" (quarterly location report, dwp.dmdc.osd.mil, workforce reports), active-duty columns of the Grand Total row. "Information presented on this site is considered public information and may be distributed or copied" (DMDC privacy and security notice). Read monthly.

U.S. Active-Duty Military Personnel · Air Force (DMDC). Source: Defense Manpower Data Center (DMDC), U.S. Department of Defense, "Number of Military and DoD Appropriated Fund (APF) Civilian Personnel by Assigned Duty Location and Service/Component" (quarterly location report, dwp.dmdc.osd.mil, workforce reports), active-duty columns of the Grand Total row. "Information presented on this site is considered public information and may be distributed or copied" (DMDC privacy and security notice). Read monthly.

U.S. Active-Duty Military Personnel · Space Force (DMDC). Source: Defense Manpower Data Center (DMDC), U.S. Department of Defense, "Number of Military and DoD Appropriated Fund (APF) Civilian Personnel by Assigned Duty Location and Service/Component" (quarterly location report, dwp.dmdc.osd.mil, workforce reports), active-duty columns of the Grand Total row. "Information presented on this site is considered public information and may be distributed or copied" (DMDC privacy and security notice). Read monthly.

U.S. Active-Duty Military Personnel · Coast Guard (DMDC). Source: Defense Manpower Data Center (DMDC), U.S. Department of Defense, "Number of Military and DoD Appropriated Fund (APF) Civilian Personnel by Assigned Duty Location and Service/Component" (quarterly location report, dwp.dmdc.osd.mil, workforce reports), active-duty columns of the Grand Total row. "Information presented on this site is considered public information and may be distributed or copied" (DMDC privacy and security notice). Read monthly.

Charts are drawn from Palanor's signal library and recomputed from source data on every view. Transformations (changes, indexing, year-on-year rates) are Palanor's.

Related charts

Government

The Size of Each U.S. Armed Service

Active-duty military personnel worldwide by service, latest quarter, persons

455,397Data 53 days ago
GovernmentForecast

U.S. Federal Debt Since 1790

Federal debt held by the public as a share of GDP, %

99.4%Data to Sep 2025
GovernmentForecast

Trust in the Federal Government

Share of Americans who trust the federal government to do what is right always or most of the time, %

22%Data to Jun 2025
GovernmentForecast

Interest Costs in the Federal Budget

Federal interest as a share of outlays and of tax receipts, %

13.8%Data to Apr 2026
GovernmentForecast

US National Defense Spending (NIPA)

Federal national defense consumption expenditures and gross investment, $ billions, seasonally adjusted annual rate (BEA NIPA via FRED FDEFX).

1,190Data to Apr 2026
GovernmentForecast

U.S. Defense Spending

National defense spending as a share of GDP, %

3.7%Data to Apr 2026

Cookies

We only use essential cookies to keep you signed in and remember your theme. No analytics, no tracking, no ads. See the Privacy Policy for the full read.